UC-NRLF 


GEOGRAPHIC  INFLUENCES 
IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


ALBERT  PERRY  BRIGHAM 


CHAUTAUQUA 
HOME  READING  SERIES 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


it 


GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 
IN   AMERICAN   HISTORY 


BY 

ALBERT  PERRY  BRIGHAM,  A.M.,  F.G.S.A. 

PROFESSOR  OF  GEOLOGY  IN  COLGATE  UNIVERSITY 


NEW  YORK        CHAUTAUQUA        SPRINGFIELD        CHICAGO 

Cbautauqtta 

MCMIII 


COPYRIGHT,  1903,  BY 
ALBERT   PERRY   BRIGHAM 


ALL    RIGHTS    RESERVED 


E  m 


IN   MEMORY  OF   MY  SON 

CHARLES   WINEGAR   BRIGHAM 

A  LOVER  OF  TRUTH  AND   BEAUTY,  AN  ARDENT   READER 

OF   AMERICAN    HISTORY,  WHO   PASSED    FROM   THIS 

LIFE  TOO  SOON  TO   FULFIL  THE  PROMISE  OF 

HIS  YOUTH,  THIS  VOLUME  IS  INSCRIBED 


JVJ34G925 


PREFACE 

IN  the  chapters  which  follow,  an  attempt  has  been 
made  to  combine  the  materials  of  American  history 
and  geography.  One  must  invent  a  method  as  he 
can,  for  models  in  this  field  can  scarcely  be  said  to 
exist.  The  plan  chosen  is  geographic,  as  might  be 
expected  from  a  student  of  earth  science.  Each 
division  of  the  book  deals  with  a  region  which  is 
more  or  less  distinct  in  its  physical  development, 
and  which  often  shows  in  the  end  a  good  measure 
of  historical  unity. 

Parkman  and  Fiske  have  been  among  the  most 
useful  historical  authorities  ;  also  McMaster,  and  the 
"Winning  of  the  West,"  by  Theodore  Roosevelt, 
who,  as  an  official  and  as  a  private  citizen,  has  shown 
an  unfailing  appreciation  of  the  physical  features  of 
our  country. 

Prof.  Charles  Worthen  Spencer  of  Colgate  Uni 
versity  has  kindly  read  the  manuscript  of  the  vol 
ume  and  has  made  valuable  suggestions.  It  should 
be  stated  that  parts  of  Chapter  I  have  previously 
appeared  in  the  Geographical  Journal  of  London,  and 


vi  PREFACE 

a  few  paragraphs  of  Chapter  VIII  were  originally  pre 
pared  for  the  Bulletin  of  the  American  Geographical 
Society. 

Many  have  generously  aided  me  in  securing  the 
illustrations.  A  considerable  number  have  been 
drawn  from  the  collections  of  Mr.  William  H.  Rau, 
Philadelphia.  I  am  also  indebted  to  Dr.  F.  J.  H. 
Merrill,  State  Geologist,  Albany  ;  Rev.  A.  K.  Fuller, 
Newburg  ;  Prof.  J.  T.  Draper,  Holyoke  ;  Prof.  Arthur 
M.  Miller  and  Prof.  H.  Garman,  State  College  of 
Kentucky;  Prof.  W.  B.  Clarke,  Johns  Hopkins  Uni 
versity;  Prof.  Edward  M.  Lehnerts,  Winona,  Minn.; 
Prof.  Samuel  Calvin,  State  Geologist  of  Iowa ;  Mr. 
G.  K.  Gilbert,  United  States  Geological  Survey ; 
President  Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler  of  the  University 
of  California  and  the  United  States  Bureau  of 
Forestry. 

Both  the  physiographer  and  the  historian  may 
often  regret  omissions  or  brevity  of  treatment,  but 
such  limits  are  imperative  when  a  vast  and  twofold 
theme  is  undertaken  in  a  small  volume. 

ALBERT   PERRY   BRIGHAM. 
COLGATE  UNIVERSITY, 
May,  1903. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    THE   EASTERN   GATEWAY   OF   THE   UNITED 

STATES        .  i 

II.    SHORE-LINE  AND  HILLTOP  IN  NEW  ENGLAND    .  37 

III.  THE  APPALACHIAN  BARRIER  70 

IV.  THE  GREAT  LAKES  AND  AMERICAN  COMMERCE  105 

/ 

V.    THE  PRAIRIE  COUNTRY  142 

VI.    COTTON.  RICE,  AND  CANE                                     .  173 

VII.    THE  CIVIL  WAR     ...  200- 
VIII.    WHERE  LITTLE  RAIN  FALLS    .                          .230* 

IX.    MOUNTAIN,  MINE,  AND  FOREST    ...  255  «- 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


FIG.  PAGE 

Forefathers'  Rock,  Plymouth  .         .         .     Frontispiece 

1.  The  Palisades  of  the  Hudson      ......  5 

2.  Adirondacks  about  Clear  Lake       .....  9 

3.  Hudson  Valley  and  Catskills  in  Relief       .         .         .  17 

4.  In  the  Mohawk  Valley    .......  21 

5.  Clay  Beds  on  the  Hudson .  29 

6.  Northern  Gateway  of  the  Highlands       ....  33 

7.  Crawford  Notch,  White  Mountains    .....  43 

8.  The  Holyoke  Dam 51 

9.  Shore  of  Marblehead  Neck          ......  54 

10.  The  Sea  from  Burial  Hill,  Plymouth       ....  58 

n.  View  from  Mount  Holyoke         ......  60 

12.  Bar  Harbor      ..........  63 

13.  Gorge  of  the  Susquehanna,  Maryland  73 

14.  Delaware  Water-gap 79 

15.  Forested  Slopes,  Southern  Appalachians    ....  82 

1 6.  Spruce  Forest  in  the  Mountains  of  Virginia    .         .         .  85 

17.  Pittsburg  and  the  Beginning  of  the  Ohio  River           .         .  91 

1 8.  Alleghany  Valley  at  Franklin           .....  93 

19.  Cumberland  and  the  Narrows  of  Wills  Mountain,  Maryland  95 

20.  A  Blue-grass  Meadow  in  Kentucky    .         .         .         .         .  lor 

21.  Waste  Streams,  Niagara  Power  Company       .         .         .  109 

22.  Harbor  of  Duluth  and  Superior 113 

23.  Mahoning  Iron  Ore  Pit,  Minnesota         .         .         .         .  119 

24.  Ore  Docks,  Lake  Superior           .         .         .         .         .         .  125 

25.  Cuyahoga  River,  Cleveland 129 

26.  Shipping  in  the  Chicago  River    .         .         .          .         •  133 

27.  American  Locks  of  Sault  Sainte  Marie   .         .         .         .  135 

28.  Duluth 139 

29.  Bridge  across  the  Mississippi  at  St.  Louis       .         .         .  144 

30.  Forests  on  Bluffs,  Iowa      .         .         .         .         .         •         •  149 

ix 


x  LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIG.  PAGE 

31.  River  Front,  Cincinnati 156 

32.  Cottonwoods  in  Iowa          . 167 

33.  University  of  Nebraska 171 

34.  Avenue  of  Live  Oaks,  Savannah 175 

35.  Orange  Grove,  Florida 179 

36.  River  Front,  New  Orleans 185 

37.  Residences  on  River  Front,  Charleston  .         .         .         .          188 

38.  Cotton  Levee,  New  Orleans        .  .         .         .         .191 

39.  Cotton  Wharf,  Charleston 194 

40.  Mississippi  Steamer  at  Levee,  Mobile          .         .         .         .198 

41.  Tennessee  River  and  Lookout  Mountain         .         .         .         203 

42.  Vicksburg  from  the  West 206 

43.  Vicksburg  and  the  River  from  the  North        .         .         .         213 

44.  Shirley  House  and  Federal  Camp,  Vicksburg     .         .         .215 

45.  Chattanooga  and  Missionary  Ridge         .         .         .         .         219 

46.  Moccasin  Bend  and  Chattanooga        .....     223 

47.  Shenandoah  Valley  at  Luray 225 

48.  Shenandoah  River       .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .227 

49.  Cottonwoods  in  Colorado  Springs  ....         233 

50.  Desert  Vegetation,  Western  Utah 239 

51.  Dust  Whirl  in  the  Desert         ......         244 

52.  Great  Salt  Lake 245 

53.  Desert  Valley  and  Dry  Lake  Bed,  Utah          .         .         .         252 

54.  Mountain  Road,  Ute  Pass  .         .         .         .         .         .         .256 

55.  Bullion  at  Leadville  Smelter 260 

56.  Panning  Gold  at  Cripple  Creek 265 

57.  Marshall  Pass 271 

58.  Pike's  Peak  Trail 276 

59.  Pike's  Peak  Railway 277 

60.  Appalachian  Valley  Lands  ruined  by  Floods      .         .         .281 

61.  Appalachian  Slopes  denuded  by  Floods          .         .         .         283 


GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES    IN 
AMERICAN    HISTORY 

CHAPTER    I 

THE   EASTERN    GATEWAY   OF  THE   UNITED 
STATES 

COLUMBUS  did  not  search  for  a  new  continent.  He 
sought  a  new  path  to  an  old  world.  If  he  had  sailed 
due  west  from  Palos,  he  would  have  touched  the 
eastern  shore  of  North  America  where  the  Chesa 
peake  Bay  opens  upon  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  But  he 
turned  his  prows  southward  to  the  Canary  Islands, 
that  thence  he  might  run  due  west  along  the  28th 
parallel,  to  the  north  end  of  Japan,  which,  under  the 
name  of  Cipango,  he  found  upon  a  map  of  his  time. 
This  point  was  twelve  thousand  miles  distant,  but 
reckoning  the  size  of  the  globe  too  small,  and  the 
extent  of  Asia  too  great,  he  counted  only  upon  a  voy 
age  of  twenty-five  hundred  miles.  Sailing  westward 
from  the  Canaries,  he  found  himself  wafted  by  the 
trade-winds.  Hence  he  daily  reported  to  his  officers 
and  sailors  a  smaller  number  of  miles  than  were  really 
traversed,  that  they  might  not  be  scared  by  their 
fearful  progress  over  the  Sea  of  Darkness. 


2  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

Thus,  unwittingly,  the  discoverers  of  America  were 
heading  toward  the  West  Indies.  The  Spaniard 
stumbled  in  at  the  Mediterranean  portal  of  our  con 
tinent  ;  for  the  great  seas  which  we  know  as  the 
Caribbean  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  lie  between  the 
great  lands,  and  are  as  truly  a  Mediterranean  as  those 
waters  that  wash  the  shores  of  Europe  and  Africa. 
Thus  the  West  Indies,  Florida,  the  mouths  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  the  coastal  plain  about  Vera  Cruz 
became  forever  associated  with  the  Spaniard.  His 
power  has  gone,  but  he  has  sprinkled  island  and 
shore  with  geographic  names  which  live. 

As  early  as  1500,  European  craft  began  to  visit  the 
cod  banks  of  Newfoundland,  starting  an  industry 
which  has  been  plied  until  the  present  time.  Among 
these  fishermen  were  French  navigators,  and  it  was 
not  many  years  before  Carder  entered  the  Gulf  of 
St.  Lawrence,  sailed  up  the  great  river,  looked  up 
ward  upon  the  promontory  where  Quebec  was  to 
stand,  and  called  at  an  Indian  village  at  the  foot 
of  a  small  but  rugged  mountain  of  volcanic  origin, 
which  he  named  Mount  Royal.  The  Indian  village 
has  given  way  to  a  great  city,  and  Carder's  name  has 
become  Montreal.  He  is  the  first  of  those  illustrious 
Frenchmen  who  made  the  map  of  the  Great  Lakes, 
and  explored  the  Mississippi  River  to  its  mouth. 
Champlain,  La  Salle,  Joliet,  Marquette,  Frontenac, 
—  these  are  the  names  :  Belle  Isle,  Montreal,  Detroit, 
Prairie  du  Chien,  St.  Louis,  Baton  Rouge,  —  such 
are  the  memorials  of  French  heroism  and  French 
occupation.  The  gateway  was  the  St.  Lawrence  and 
the  Lakes. 


THE    EASTERN    GATEWAY  3 

Meantime,  in  1587,  Drake  had  sailed  into  the  har 
bor  of  Cadiz,  and  "  singed  the  king  of  Spain's  beard." 
In  1588  the  sea-dogs  of  England  joined  with  wind 
and  storm  and  sunk  the  Spanish  Armada,  strewing 
the  shores  of  the  North  Sea  and  of  the  Atlantic  with 
the  wrecks  of  Castilian  greatness.  Drake  and  Haw 
kins  scoured  the  sea  for  Spanish  treasure.  Their 
hands  were  harsh,  but  in  no  other  way  could  English 
shipping  keep  afloat,  or  English  settlements  survive 
in  any  land.  The  breaking  of  Spanish  power  opened 
the  way  to  English  colonies  in  America. 

Where  would  the  Englishman  come  upon  American 
shores  ?  The  Spaniard  held  the  islands  and  seas  of 
the  south  ;  the  French  occupied  the  St.  Lawrence  ; 
from  the  St.  Lawrence  almost  to  the  Gulf  stretches 
a  system  of  mountains ;  they  are  not  lofty,  but  they 
are  continuous ;  they  stand  back  a  little  from  the 
sea.  In  the  north  the  hills  of  southeastern  New 
England  lie  between  the  mountains  and  the  Atlantic. 
From  central  New  Jersey  to  Georgia  we  find  a  flat 
or  gently  rolling  coastal  plain.  Behind,  everywhere, 
is  the  barrier,  a  low  wall,  rugged,  however,  and  broad, 
—  the  Appalachian  Mountains. 

The  narrow  strip  of  lowland  between  the  moun 
tains  and  the  sea  was  left  to  the  Englishman.  He 
made  his  home  about  Massachusetts  Bay,  on  the 
Delaware,  the  Chesapeake,  by  the  rivers  of  Virginia, 
and  on  the  low  coasts  of  the  Carolinas  to  the  Savan 
nah.  He  forged  the  colonies  into  a  chain,  and  began 
to  push  over  the  mountain  barrier  and  through  its 
passes  until  he  had  occupied  Tennessee,  Kentucky, 
and  Ohio,  and  driven  out  the  French.  Then  he 


4  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

swept  across  the  prairies,  adopted  the  Western  moun 
tains  as  his  own,  and  planted  great  cities  by  the  har 
bors  of  the  Pacific. 

Conquering  the  Dutch,  who  had  anticipated  him  in 
possessing  the  best  Atlantic  harbor  of  North  America, 
he  found  a  narrow  but  open  and  easy  road,  through 
the  Appalachian  wall,  between  the  seaboard  and  the 
prairies  of  the  Mississippi.  The  Eastern  Gateway  of 
the  United  States  is  the  valley  of  the  Hudson  and 
Mohawk  rivers. 

The  history  of  the  Empire  State  gathers  about  this 
gateway.  When  the  voyager  from  the  Old  World 
approaches  the  chief  city  of  the  New,  he  sees  the 
southern  shore  of  Long  Island,  and  the  line  of  Atlan 
tic  Highlands  converging  toward  the  Lower  Bay. 
Then  he  passes  the  Narrows  and  enters  New  York 
Harbor.  Leaving  the  East  River  on  his  right  and 
continuing  northward,  he  enters  the  lower  waters  of 
the  Hudson.  He  may  follow  its  valley  for  a  hundred 
and  fifty  miles,  and  at  every  point  the  rise  and  fall  of 
the  tide  will  remind  him  of  the  ocean  which  he  has 
left  behind. 

Eastern  New  York  is  occupied  by  a  narrow  belt  of 
low  mountains.  In  some  places  these  mountains  rise 
to  moderate  heights,  and  in  others  they  are  worn 
to  their  roots  and  form  a  region  of  hills  and  rocky 
ledges.  These  mountain  ridges  run  north-northeast 
by  south-southwest  and  are  a  part  of  the  great 
Appalachian  system.  The  Hudson  cuts  across  them 
in  a  long  diagonal,  in  its  southward  course  from  Al 
bany  to  New  York.  This  is  most  plainly  seen  in  the 
Highlands.  This  range,  built  of  hard  and  ancient 


6  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

crystalline  rocks,  enters  New  York  from  the  north 
east  and  leaves  the  state  to  the  southwest,  where  it 
becomes  the  Highlands  of  New  Jersey.  Through 
it  is  cut  the  gorge  of  the  Highlands,  barely  wide 
enough  to  carry  the  river,  with  steep  slopes  rising 
to  the  summits  of  Storm  King,  Crow's  Nest,  and 
Anthony's  Nose. 

If  Hendrik  Hudson  had  an  eye  for  landscape,  he 
did  not  lack  for  variety  after  he  sailed  the  Half  Moon 
through  the  Narrows.  The  forested  flats  and  low 
hills  of  Manhattan  on  the  east  lay  in  contrast  to  the 
precipitous  wall  of  the  Palisades  that  followed  him  on 
his  left  for  nearly  forty  miles.  He  doubtless  did  not 
recognize  in  their  huge  columns  the  outcropping  of 
massive  beds  of  ancient  lava.  When  he  reached 
Haverstraw  Bay  and  saw  the  river  broaden  to  three 
miles,  we  may  safely  think  that  his  spirits  quickened 
with  the  hope  that  the  passage  to  Cathay  had  been 
found.  But  he  was  doomed  to  doubt  as  he  began  to 
thread  the  Highland  gorge.  When  he  emerged  on 
the  north  the  river  was  wide  again,  and  its  valley 
more  spacious  than  he  had  seen  it  before.  Going 
northward,  the  Catskills  would  fill  his  vision  as  he 
looked  westward  over  a  few  miles  of  low  country  to 
the  strong  profile  that  ruled  the  horizon  far  along  his 
course.  Eastward  he  would  see  rough  and  rising 
land,  but  he  could  not  see  that  here  are  the  foothills 
of  the  mountains  of  New  England.  As  the  voyager 
passed  the  hundred-mile  limit  from  the  sea,  he  would 
find  shoal  water  and  many  islands,  and  begin  to  sus 
pect,  what  a  few  more  miles  of  journeying  would 
prove,  that  he  was  following  a  river  toward  its  source, 


THE    EASTERN   GATEWAY  7 

and  that  he  must  turn  back  and  seek  in  regions  yet 
unknown  a  passage  to  the  far  East. 

It  remained  for  others  to  learn  what  lay  beyond 
the  site  of  Albany.  Succeeding  explorers  climbed 
the  slopes  on  which  Albany  is  built,  and  thence  for 
nearly  twenty  miles  traversed  a  region  of  half-sterile 
sands  to  the  Mohawk  River  bottoms,  where  Schenec- 
tady  now  stands.  Looking  westward,  there  appears 
a  deep  V-shaped  gap  in  the  uplands.  Through  this 
gap  the  river  pours  from  the  west.  By  this  channel, 
in  the  closing  times  of  the  Ice  Age,  flowed  the  waters 
of  the  Great  Lakes,  depositing  in  the  Hudson  Valley 
the  great  body  of  sands  that  lies  west  of  Albany. 

The  Mohawk  Valley,  or  that  part  of  it  which  now 
interests  us,  is  a  trench  nearly  one  hundred  miles 
long,  extending  from  Schenectady  westward  to  Rome, 
in  central  New  York.  Easterly  it  opens  into  the 
Hudson  lowlands,  westerly  it  widens  into  the  plains 
of  Iroquois,  in  other  words,  the  flat  bottoms  of  the 
greater  glacial  ancestor  of  Lake  Ontario.  Viewed 
from  near  the  river,  the  valley  appears  to  be  about 
500  feet  deep,  with  an  average  width  of  flood-plain 
of  a  half  mile.  Seen  more  truly  from  the  bordering 
plateau,  it  is  a  vast  gap,  1500  to  2000  feet  deep,  its 
upper  slopes  several  miles  apart,  lying  between  the 
great  uplands  on  either  hand.  The  parting  of  the 
waters  is  at  Rome.  From  that  point  the  streams 
enter  Lake  Ontario.  Once  pass  this  gateway,  and 
the  path  is  clear  across  the  lake  plains  and  over  the 
prairies  and  plains  to  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

South  of  the  Mohawk  are  the  uplands  of  New 
York,  stretching  from  the  Hudson  Valley  to  Lake 


8  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

Erie.  On  the  east  we  know  them  as  the  Catskill 
Mountains.  But  these  are  only  lofty  hills  with  rolling- 
tops,  and  descending  by  a  precipitous  slope,  or  escarp 
ment,  on  the  east.  Seen  from  the  east,  along  the 
Hudson  River,  this  slope,  with  its  crest,  appears  like 
a  mountain  range.  It  is  really  the  edge,  or  end,  of  a 
plateau.  This  plateau,  which  is  3000  feet  or  more 
in  altitude  in  parts  of  the  Catskills,  falls  to  an  aver 
age  of  2000  feet  in  central  and  western  New  York. 
The  Mohawk  gap  lies  north  of  the  plateau,  or  may  be 
said  to  be  cut  through  the  plateau  along  its  northern 
edge. 

North  of  the  Mohawk  Valley  the  land  rises,  at  first 
moderately,  and  then  more  boldly,  to  the  slopes  and 
summits  of  the  Adirondack  Mountains.  While  these 
mountains,  like  the  Highlands  of  the  Hudson,  are 
ancient  and  much  denuded,  they  preserve  a  series  of 
bold  northeast  by  southwest  ranges,  so  that  there  is 
no  line  or  avenue,  north  of  the  Mohawk,  along  which 
a  railway  could  be  well  constructed.  Except  for  local 
traffic,  the  mountains  are  a  perfect  barrier  to  com 
merce  and  travel. 

The  physiographer  can  look  back  to  an  era  when 
no  Mohawk  Valley  existed,  when  the  drainage  of  the 
southern  Adirondacks  crossed  the  state  to  the  Penn 
sylvania  region,  and  he  can  see  that  there  is  a  Mohawk 
Valley  because  a  belt  of  soft  and  destructible  rocks, 
known  as  the  Utica  and  Hudson  shales,  extends  from 
the  region  of  Albany  westward,  between  areas  of 
harder  rock  on  either  hand.  The  valley  has  a  long 
and  intricate  physical  history  which  cannot  here  be 
told.  It  must  suffice  to  say  that  in  ancient  days  there 


10  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

was  no  such  valley,  that  its  presence  is  due  to  a  belt 
of  destructible  rocks  disintegrating  for  long  periods, 
that  the  ice  sheet  entered  it  and  overrode  it,  that  the 
waters  of  the  Great  Lakes  poured  through  it  for  a 
time,  until  they  were  diverted  to  their  present  course, 
leaving  the  valley  to  become  in  due  time  the  channel 
of  human  intercourse. 

As  the  traveler,  going  up  the  valley,  passes  Rome, 
the  bordering  slopes  recede  on  either  hand  and  on 
the  north  are  soon  lost  to  view.  On  the  south,  how 
ever,  he  sees  bold  hills,  to  Syracuse  and  beyond.  These 
form  the  northern  slope  of  the  Catskill-Alleghany 
plateau.  The  railway  traverses  a  flat  country,  the 
bed  of  Lake  Iroquois.  This  plain,  studded  between 
Syracuse  and  Rochester  with  elongated  glacial  hills, 
continues  through  western  New  York,  south  of  Lake 
Ontario.  It  is  a  region  of  high  fertility,  and  is  now 
one  of  the  garden  spots  of  the  United  States. 

The  explorers  and  settlers  of  this  part  of  New 
York  found  established  here  several  powerful  In 
dian  tribes,  —  the  Iroquois.  A  few  generations  before 
the  white  man  came  they  banded  themselves  in  a 
close  alliance  known  as  the  Confederacy  of  the 
Five  Nations.  They  called  their  country  the  "  Long 
House."  The  Mohawks  were  the  most  easterly  of 
the  tribes,  calling  their  fair  valley  the  eastern  gate 
way  of  the  Long  House,  and  they  were  its  keepers. 
All  the  tribes,  including  Oneidas,  Onondagas,  Sene- 
cas,  and  Cayugas,  were  in  a  comparatively  advanced 
state.  They  practiced  agriculture  extensively,  lived 
in  neat  and  comfortable  cabins,  possessed  considera 
ble  industrial  skill,  were  eloquent  in  public  counsel, 


THE    EASTERN    GATEWAY  II 

and  were  the  objects  of  widespread  fear  through  their 
prowess  in  war.  Whatever  their  progress,  they  were 
still  savages,  delighting  in  torture  and  given  to  occa 
sional  cannibalism. 

Good  camping  grounds  and  natural  highways  have 
usually  been  found  out  by  savage  tribes,  and  often 
by  wild  animals,  long  before  civilized  man  appears. 
Thus  the  Iroquois  had  made  their  own  what  Fiske 
calls  the  "  most  commanding  military  position  in  east 
ern  North  America."  How  far  their  power  was  due 
to  qualities  which  they  had  inherited  and  brought 
with  them,  and  to  what  measure  it  came  from  their 
environment  and  opportunity,  is  a  question  which 
neither  the  geographer  nor  the  ethnologist  is  yet 
ready  to  answer.  Whatever  be  the  answer,  the  Eu 
ropean  immigrant  met  these  sturdy  aborigines,  and 
found  himself  in  alliance  or  at  war.  *  One  avenue  of 
approach  to  the  Long  House  was  by  ascent  of  the 
Hudson  and  Mohawk  rivers.  A  second  was  through 
the  Champlain  Valley  from  the  St.  Lawrence.  A 
third  lay  along  the  eastern  shore  of  Lake  Ontario. 
Thus,  from  the  first,  the  rippling  waters  and  border 
ing  flood-plains  of  the  Mohawk  were  a  frequented 
path,  traversed  by  French,  Dutch,  and  English  in 
various  contact  of  war  and  peace  with  the  natives 
of  the  land.  Of  these  the  French  were  the  first  to 
invade  the  Mohawk  country.  Not  far  away,  at  Ticon- 
deroga,  Champlain,  the  first  white  actor  on  this  stage, 
had  aided  the  Hurons  against  the  Five  Nations,  and 
had  thus,  by  the  enmity  aroused,  determined  for  the 
English  the  ultimate  control  of  the  region.  A  later 
invasion  was  made  by  the  French  along  the  shore  of 


12  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

Lake  Ontario,  but  they  were  defeated  and  forced  to 
retire.  There  were  peaceful  invasions  also,  for  in 
the  valley  captive  missionaries  endured  torture  and 
sometimes  death.  Most  heroic  and  famous  of  these 
is  Father  Jogues,  whose  fate  has  recently  been  com 
memorated  by  a  shrine  of  his  church,  erected  where 
he  perished,  on  the  edge  of  a  glacial  terrace  south  of 
the  river.  The  final  failure  of  the  French  to  dislodge 
or  convert  the  natives  of  the  valley  was  fraught  with 
weighty  results  in  the  history  of  the  new  continent. 
Had  they  won  this  great  highway,  they  might  in  later 
years  have  maintained  themselves  on  the  St.  Law 
rence,  and  might  now  hold  the  keys  of  the  New  World. 
It  was  the  Hudson-Mohawk  Valley  which  early 
guided  the  Dutch  in  their  effort  to  carve  a  slice  from 
the  new  continent.  Under  an  English  commander, 
Hendrik  Hudson,  they  sailed  up  the  river  which 
bears  his  name.  At  the  limit  of  navigation  the  Dutch 
later  built  Fort  Nassau  below  the  site  of  Albany  and 
concluded  a  treaty  with  the  Mohawk  Indians.  Its 
object  was  trade,  and  it  went  far  to  prevent  French 
control  of  the  valley.  They  built  Fort  Orange  in 
1622,  and  thus  laid  the  foundations  of  Albany.  In 
1642  Arendt  van  Curler  entered  the  Mohawk  coun 
try,  reported  its  lands  as  "the  most  beautiful  that 
eye  ever  saw,"  and  was  later  authorized  to  buy  the 
"  Great  Flats,"  where  Schenectady  now  stands.  The 
old  town  and  family  names  of  the  lower  Mohawk 
still  bear  proud  testimony  to  this  wave  of  immigra 
tion,  in  the  ever  present  Fondas,  Schuylers,  Sprakers, 
Sammonses,  Van  der  Veers,  and  Yosts  of  the  river 
country. 


THE   EASTERN    GATEWAY  13 

The  first  white  settlement  in  the  upper  stretches 
of  the  valley  was  made  by  the  Palatines  in  1723. 
Following  the  devastating  wars  of  Louis  XIV,  thou 
sands  of  these  stricken  people  left  their  homes  on  the 
Rhine  and  took  refuge  in  England.  Some  of  these 
were  sent  to  America  under  a  compact  to  reimburse 
the  English  government  for  their  passage  and  for  the 
allotment  of  lands.  After  a  period  of  great  suffering, 
first  on  the  Hudson  and  then  on  the  lower  Mohawk, 
a  final  removal  brought  them  to  the  German  Flats 
Patent,  between  Little  Falls  and  Utica.  Here  each 
family  received  a  liberal  allowance  of  the  rich  allu 
vium  and  adjacent  uplands  of  the  valley,  and  their 
descendants  have  been  powerful  in  the  history  of  the 
state  and  nation. 

The  next  wave  of  immigration  which  swept  up  the 
valley  was  English.  In  1784  Hugh  White  passed 
the  Hollanders  of  Schenectady  and  the  High  Dutch 
settlement  of  German  Flats,  and  founded  Whitestown 
on  the  upper  river.  His  coming  was  the  signal  for  a 
lively  movement  from  the  stony  slopes  of  New  Eng 
land  to  the  inviting  fields  of  the  Long  House,  to 
which  the  Mohawk  was  the  only  road.  Then  came 
the  stream  of  emigrant  wagons,  bearing  the  names  of 
Ohio  and  Indiana,  then  in  the  far  distant  West. 

These  successive  invasions  are  vividly  recorded  in 
the  layers  of  geographic  names  that  are  spread  over 
New  York.  Manhattan,  New  Amsterdam,  New  York, 
—  this  is  a  sample  of  the  record.  But  in  this  case 
one  of  the  names  is  now  only  a  historical  relic.  The 
Indian  tribal  names  have  attached  themselves  to 
river,  lake,  town,  and  county.  The  student  of  the 


14         GEOGRAPHIC  INFLUENCES 

ice  invasion  gives  the  name  of  the  Indian  confederacy 
to  the  earlier  and  greater  Ontario.  Ontario  itself  is 
one  of  many  melodious  aboriginal  names  beginning 
and  ending  in  o :  Owasco,  Otisco,  Otego,  Owego,  Os- 
wego,  and  Otsego.  Happily  these  musical  primitive 
names  stay  with  many  of  our  streams  :  Chittenango, 
Chenango,  Unadilla,  Genesee,  Chemung,  and  Sus- 
quehanna. 

The  Dutch  invasion  has  left  plentiful  memorials: 
Harlem,  Tappan  Zee,  Kaaterskill,  Stuyvesant,  Rensse- 
laer,  or  in  the  Mohawk  Valley,  Schenectady,  Am 
sterdam,  Fonda,  and  Schoharie.  Palatine,  Minden, 
Manheim,  and  Herkimer,  are  memorials  of  the  refu 
gees  from  the  Rhine,  settling  in  the  Mohawk  coun 
try.  The  Englishman  marked  his  presence  by  names 
from  the  mother  country,  though  this  habit  is  by  no 
means  so  common  as  in  New  England,  where  the  first 
settlers  had  come,  with  fresh  memories,  direct  from 
the  old  home.  Still,  we  have  such  names  as  New 
York,  Westchester,  Albany,  and  Rochester.  Then 
come  the  records  of  the  pioneer,  or  prominent  citizen  : 
such  are  Dobbs  Ferry,  Wappingers  Falls,  and,  in 
greater  numbers  as  we  go  west,  Whitestown,  Gilberts- 
ville,  Sangerfield,  Smithville,  Binghamton,  or  Coopers- 
town.  Another  stratum  is  composed  of  names  great 
in  our  history,  as  Washington,  Madison,  Hamilton, 
Clinton,  Steuben,  or  Fulton.  And  finally  we  discover 
that  a  curious  shower  of  classical  names  fell  in  early 
days  on  central  New  York,  the  memorials  of  men 
who,  in  a  pioneer  region,  revered  the  ancient  culture. 
They  may  be  counted  by  scores :  Utica,  Rome,  Syra 
cuse,  Ithaca,  Homer,  Tully,  Virgil,  and  many  more. 


THE   EASTERN    GATEWAY  15 

The  stream  of  travel  has  never  ceased  to  flow,  but 
has  rather  become  thousand  fold  in  the  century  which 
has  passed.  Before  considering  the  Mohawk  and 
Hudson  valleys  as  a  modern  highway,  however,  it 
will  be  well  to  observe  that  they  were  the  theatre  of 
important  military  events  in  colonial  times.  English 
forts  had  been  erected  on  the  upper  Hudson  by  the 
year  1709,  and  before  the  year  1712  the  chain  had 
been  extended  up  the  Mohawk  to  Fort  Hunter,  forty 
miles  from  Albany.  In  1720,  through  the  influence 
of  William  Burnet,  son  of  Bishop  Burnet  and  governor 
of  New  York,  forts  were  built  at  Oswego  and  farther 
west  at  Irondequoit  Bay.  About  the  time  of  the 
French  War,  a  number  were  built  near  the  present 
city  of  Rome,  or  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Oneida  carrying- 
place.  "  These,  and  similar  efforts  on  the  part  of 
the  English,  served  to  divert  from  the  French  into 
English  channels  a  large  Indian  trade,  and  to  make 
the  route  via  Mohawk  River  and  Oneida  Lake,  the 
shorter  one  between  Albany  and  Canada,  the  one 
most  generally  travelled."  The  Mohawk  and  Cham- 
plain  became  thus  the  great  highways  trodden  by 
hostile  forces  in  the  French  and  Indian  Wars,  until 
the  French  rule  came  to  its  end  in  Canada  in  1760. 
Local  histories  are  filled  with  exciting  records  of  mid 
night  attack,  weary  marches  in  captivity,  and  all  the 
terrors  of  border  warfare.  Here,  too,  was  fought 
one  of  the  less-known  but  most  pivotal  battles  in  the 
struggle  between  the  colonies  and  the  mother  country, 
the  battle  of  Oriskany.  On  the  south  slope  of  the 
valley,  a  few  miles  west  of  Utica,  the  Dutch  farmers 
rallied  under  Nicholas  Herkimer,  and  defeated  the 


16  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

English  and  the  Indians,  who  would  otherwise  have 
gone  down  the  valley  and  supported  Burgoyne  in  his 
campaign  on  the  Hudson.  The  contestants  on  each 
side  numbered  but  a  few  hundred,  but  the  result  is 
thought  by  many  to  have  been  decisive  of  the  main 
issue  of  the  war. 

The  control  of  the  Hudson  was  far  more  vital  to 
both  Americans  and  British  than  the  holding  of  the 
Mohawk.  By  its  connection  with  the  Champlain 
Valley  it  became  the  focus  of  strategy  in  the  Revolu 
tion.  While  the  colonial  forces  were  still  about  Boston, 
Arnold  had  advised  Dr.  Warren  that  Ticonderoga 
and  Crown  Point  be  seized,  both  because  they  con 
tained  military  stores  and  because  they  stood  in  the 
gateway  of  the  north.  Before  the  British  army  evac 
uated  Boston,  it  was  suspected  that  New  York  would 
be  the  point  of  attack,  and  General  Lee,  on  his  urgent 
request  from  Washington,  was  permitted  to  prepare 
for  the  defence  of  the  city  and  the  Hudson.  No  one 
can  know  what  might  have  happened,  if  Clinton,  hov 
ering  in  the  harbor,  had  not  found  that  Lee  was  in 
New  York,  ready  to  defend  it.  To  have  gained  the 
Hudson  at  that  early  day  would  have  cut  off  New 
England  from  the  Southern  colonies  and  put  to  risk 
the  independence  of  all.  Plans  for  fortification  went 
on  after  Clinton  disappeared.  The  East  River  near 
Hell  Gate,  the  B  ;oklyn  Heights,  and  the  Highlands 
to  the  north  were  included  in  the  scheme. 

When  the  British  forces  under  Howe  did  make 
their  appearance,  in  June,  1776,  they  were  not  to  find 
the  lower  Hudson  an  easy  conquest.  They  could 
drive  Washington  out  of  Long  Island,  and  they  could 


FIG.  3.     The  Hudson  Valley  and  the  Catskills  shown  in  Relief. 


1 8  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

sail  past  Putnam's  obstructions  of  the  North  River 
and  win  at  Fort  Washington  and  Fort  Lee,  but  they 
could  not  get  possession  of  the  upper  Highlands. 
When  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  in  1777,  failed  to  subju 
gate  the  Hudson  and  make  connection  with  Bur- 
goyne,  coming  from  the  north,  the  most  promising 
device  of  British  strategy  fell  to  the  ground.  Ameri 
can  victory  at  Oriskany  and  Bemis  Heights,  and 
British  failure  on  the  Hudson,  left  the  great  highways 
of  New  York  in  the  possession  of  the  colonies.  It 
was  four  years  later,  at  Dobbs  Ferry,  on  the  lower 
Hudson,  that  Washington  planned  the  Yorktown 
campaign.  In  the  same  old  house,  occupied  as  his 
headquarters,  Washington  and  Carleton,  in  1783, 
arranged  for  the  departure  of  the  British  from  Amer 
ican  soil.  Here  the  French  allies  had  been  received 
in  1781,  and  here  in  1783,  two  days  after  the  confer 
ence  with  Carleton,  a  British  warship  fired  seventeen 
guns  in  honor  of  the  American  commander.  These 
facts  are  now  inscribed  on  this  old  mansion,  and 
typify  the  importance  of  the  Hudson  Highlands 
throughout  the  long  struggle. 

In  the  pioneer  days  the  Mohawk  was  considered 
a  navigable  stream,  and  immigrants  and  freight  were 
conveyed  over  its  waters  in  boats  propelled  by  poles. 
Several  breaks  were,  however,  necessary ;  a  first  be 
yond  Albany,  because  of  the  abrupt  fall  of  seventy 
feet  at  Cohoes,  a  second  at  Little  Falls,  on  account 
of  impassable  rapids  over  the  barrier  of  hard  rocks 
which  the  stream  there  encounters,  and  a  third  of 
two  miles  at  the  Oneida  carrying-place,  where  the 
Mohawk  is  left  to  the  east,  and  the  winding  course 


THE    EASTERN    GATEWAY  19 

of  Wood  Creek  is  followed  to  Oneida  Lake.  Early 
legislative  authority  was  given  for  improving  naviga 
tion  at  these  points,  and  soon  after  1791  a  canal,  three 
miles  long,  with  five  locks,  was  constructed  at  Little 
Falls,  and  a  further  canal  conducted  boats  across  the 
Oneida  carrying-place.  We  read  that  the  enlarged 
boats,  with  five  men,  could  transport,  between  the 
terminal  points  of  navigation  on  the  river,  twelve 
tons  in  twelve  days.  Long  lines  of  wagons  and  stages 
also  traversed  the  bottom-lands,  making  the  valley  a 
busy  highway  between  the  East  and  the  expanding 
West. 

A  continuous  waterway,  from  the  tidal  waters  of 
the  Hudson  to  the  blue  expanse  of  the  Laurentian 
lakes,  became  now  the  subject  of  serious  discussion. 
Enough  of  the  geography  was  known  to  suggest  the 
possibility  of  such  communication,  but  the  following 
order,  issued  to  a  commander  on  Lake  Ontario,  in 
1814,  shows  also  the  extent  of  the  ignorance  that  pre 
vailed.  "  Take  the  Lady  of  the  Lake  and  proceed  to 
Onondaga,  and  take  in  at  Nicholas  Mickle's  furnace 
a  load  of  ball  and  shot,  and  proceed  at  once  to  Buf 
falo."  "That  means,"  said  the  perplexed  officer, 
"that  I  am  to  go  over  Oswego  Falls  and  up  the 
river  to  Onondaga  Lake,  thence  ten  miles  into  the 
country  by  land  to  the  furnace,  and  returning  to 
Oswego,  proceed  to  the  Niagara,  and  up  and  over 
Niagara  Falls  to  Buffalo!" 

The  demand  for  a  water-route  was  strengthened 
by  the  danger  that  the  growing  commerce  of  the  Gen- 
esee  country  would  be  diverted,  either  down  the  St. 
Lawrence  to  Montreal  and  Quebec,  or  by  the  Susque- 


20  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

hanna  to  Philadelphia.  It  is  difficult  to  assign  credit 
for  the  suggestion  of  an  Erie  Canal.  Probably  the  idea 
was  conceived  independently  in  several  thoughtful 
minds.  Such  a  prediction  is  said  to  have  been  made 
by  Captain  Joseph  Carver  in  1776.  Elkanah  Watson, 
describing  a  westward  journey  in  1788,  voiced  his 
"  strong  presentiment  that  a  canal  communication 
will  be  opened  sooner  or  later  from  the  Great  Lakes 
to  the  Hudson."  Gouverneur  Morris  is  reported  to 
have  said,  in  1803,  "  Lake  Erie  must  be  tapped  and 
the  waters  carried  across  the  country  to  the  Hudson." 
He  thought  there  should  be  a  uniform  declivity 
between  the  two,  not  taking  account  of  locks  and 
summit  supplies  of  water.  The  legislature  took  up 
the  matter  in  1808,  a  survey  was  made,  and  in  1810 
a  commission  was  appointed.  The  project  then  fell 
into  abeyance  until  revived  by  De  Witt  Clinton  in 
1817.  Navigation  was  finally  opened  between  Lake 
Erie  and  the  Hudson  on  October  26,  1825.  The  price 
of  transportation  from  Albany  to  Buffalo,  about  three 
hundred  miles,  gradually  declined  during  the  twenty- 
six  years  after  the  opening  of  the  canal,  from  $88  to 
$5.98  per  ton.  Later,  railway  competition  became  ef 
fective,  and  transportation  from  Buffalo  to  New  York, 
in  1885,  was  but  $1.57  per  ton.  Of  the  vicinity  of 
Rochester  it  was  said,  upon  completion  of  the  canal, 
that  her  timber  found  market  and  floated  away. 
Wheat  quadrupled  in  price.  The  mud  dried  up,  the 
mosquitoes,  the  ague  and  fever,  and  the  bears  left  the 
country,  and  prosperity  came  in  on  every  hand.  In 
like  manner  the  salt,  gypsum,  lime,  and  grain  of 
Onondaga,  where  is  now  the  great  city  of  Syracuse, 


22  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

found  ready  market.  But  it  is  not  enough  to  cite 
these  comparatively  local  results.  The  meaning  of 
the  Mohawk  Valley  is  that  the  entire  region  of  the 
Great  Lakes  and  the  vast  prairie  and  mountain 
regions  of  the  West  became  tributary  to  the  rising 
metropolis  on  Manhattan  Island. 

A  similar  story  has  now  to  be  told  of  railway  com 
munication  through  this  valley.  There  was  no  rail 
road  in  America  prior  to  1826.  In  that  year  a  horse 
railway,  four  miles  long,  was  built  at  Quincy,  Mass., 
for  the  transportation  of  granite  from  the  quarries. 
In  the  same  year  the  legislature  of  the  state  of  New 
York  granted  a  charter  to  the  Mohawk  and  Hudson 
River  Railway  Company  to  build  a  road  from  Albany 
on  the  Hudson  to  Schenectady  on  the  Mohawk,  a  dis 
tance  of  eighteen  miles.  This  was  the  first  chartered 
railroad  in  America.  It  was  completed  October  31, 
1826,  and  at  once  carried  four  hundred  passengers 
daily.  This,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  soon  after 
through  traffic  began  on  the  Erie  Canal.  In  1833  a 
charter  was  granted  for  a  road  to  extend  from 
Schenectady  up  the  river  to  Utica,  a  distance  of 
nearly  eighty  miles.  This  division  was  in  running 
order  in  1836.  A  further  link  in  the  westward  series, 
between  Syracuse  and  Auburn,  was  finished  in  1837, 
and  from  Utica  to  Syracuse  in  1839.  A  curious 
argument  was  urged  for  a  break  in  the  chain  of 
roads  at  Utica ;  namely,  that  otherwise  it  would  be 
come  a  mere  way-station  on  a  great  line  and  its 
business  would  fail  to  develop.  The  discussion  shows 
that  the  consolidation  of  the  future  was  forecast  at 
an  early  time.  Gradually  the  line  was  completed 


THE    EASTERN   GATEWAY  23 

from  New  York  to  Buffalo,  450  miles,  and  became 
known  as  the  New  York  Central  and  Hudson  River 
Railway,  or  more  commonly  as  the  New  York 
Central,  one  of  the  greatest  railways  of  the  world. 
Four  tracks  lie  side  by  side  from  Albany  to  Buffalo, 
two  being  used  for  passenger  traffic  and  two  for  the 
conveyance  of  freight.  Owing  to  the  abrupt  descent 
of  the  valley  slopes  to  the  river,  but  two  tracks  lead 
from  Albany  down  to  New  York.  A  great  num 
ber  of  minor  railways  pour  their  tribute  into  this 
artery  of  transportation,  and  it  is  hardly  true  to  call 
Buffalo  a  terminal  point,  since  many  solid  trains  each 
day  push  on  without  change  both  south  of  the  lakes 
and  across  Niagara,  through  Canada,  five  hundred 
miles  farther,  to  Chicago.  Except  at  West  Albany 
there  is  not  a  difficult  grade  or  an  embankment  or 
trestle  of  any  importance  between  New  York  and 
Buffalo,  and  with  slight  exception  this  holds  good 
from  Buffalo  to  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Two  thousand 
miles  of  splendid  country  are  thus  made  tributary  to 
the  harbor  of  New  York  through  the  river  gateway 
which  we  have  described. 

About  twenty-five  years  ago  a  competing  line  with 
two  tracks  was  constructed  and  called  the  West  Shore 
Railway.  It  extends  up  the  Hudson  on  the  west 
side,  along  the  Mohawk  on  the  south  side,  and  then 
closely  parallel  to  the  Central  Railway  to  Buffalo. 
For  the  most  part  the  same  towns  are  served  by  the 
two  lines,  and  the  newer  has  now  become  an  integral 
part  of  the  older  system,  so  that  the  New  York  Cen 
tral  virtually  crosses  the  Empire  State  with  a  line 
of  six  parallel  tracks.  It  should  be  added  that  the 


24  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

second  telegraph  line  in  America  joined  Albany  and 
Utica  along  the  Mohawk  Valley,  being  finished  on 
January  31,  1846.  A  short  line  between  Baltimore 
and  Washington  preceded  it  by  two  years. 

To  sum  up,  the 'valley  is  now  threaded  by  the 
ancient  highways,  the  Erie  Canal,  six  railway  tracks, 
and  innumerable  telegraphs  and  long  distance  tele 
phones  by  which  New  York  converses  with  Detroit, 
Indianapolis,  Chicago,  and  other  Western  cities.  The 
passing  up  and  down,  day  and  night,  of  men,  of 
thoughts,  of  commodities,  is  like  the  ebb  and  flow 
of  tidal  waves,  whose  course  is  only  stayed  as  traffic 
rests  on  the  docks  of  Europe  and  of  more  distant 
continents. 

But  it  must  not  be  thought  that  the  Mohawk  is 
the  only  road  which  has  been  sought  out  to  the  West. 
It  is  only  a  broader  gate  with  a  lower  threshold. 
There  are  other  great  railways,  but  none  of  them 
passes  the  Appalachian  belt  at  an  altitude,  as  at 
Rome,  of  445  feet.  A  brief  comparison  will  be 
instructive.  Take  first  the  roads  which  traverse  the 
Empire  State  from  the  seaboard.  Much  English 
capital  was  invested  in  the  Erie  Railway.  Perhaps 
the  flow  of  money  would  have  been  less  free  had  its 
sinuosity  and  heavy  grades  been  known.  At  75 
miles  from  New  York  it  must  attain  a  height  of 
870  feet  to  pass  the  Kittatinny  Mountains.  At  Port 
Jervis  the  altitude  is  442  feet;  at  Deposit,  1008  feet; 
near  Elmira,  799  feet;  and  at  Castile,  1401  feet,  with 
some  large  embankments  and  difficult  bridges.  Like 
wise  the  New  York,  Ontario,  and  Western  Railway, 
running  to  Oswego  and  the  West,  crosses  difficult 


THE   EASTERN   GATEWAY  25 

divides,  and  rises  and  falls  between  low  altitudes 
and  heights  of  nearly  1800  feet.  The  Delaware, 
Lackawana,  and  Western  Railway  rises  to  1932  feet 
at  Tobyhanna,  Pa.,  and  in  27  miles  descends  to  745 
feet  at  Scranton.  Thence  it  passes  into  New  York, 
where  it  varies  between  846  feet  and  1359  feet. 

Of  the  roads  which  cross  the  Appalachians  south 
of  New  York,  the  conditions  are  similar.  The  Lehigh 
Valley  road  from  Philadelphia  maintains  a  course 
below  700  feet  for  100  miles,  then  in  30  miles  climbs 
to  its  summit,  1728  feet,  and  in  20  miles  more  drops 
to  549  feet  at  Wilkesbarre.  The  Pennsylvania,  one  of 
the  finest  roads  in  America,  is  obliged  to  make  at  one 
point  an  altitude  of  2161  feet,  and  has  one  section  of 
five  miles  whose  grade  is  80  feet  per  mile.  The  Balti 
more  and  Ohio  road  has  its  summit  at  2620  feet. 
Farther  south  the  facts  are  yet  more  striking,  and  it 
is  less  than  twenty  years  since  a  railway  first  crossed 
the  southern  Appalachians. 

An  old  writing,  dating  from  1634,  makes  reference 
to  a  company  which  bought  from  its  Indian  owners 
"the  island  of  Manhattan,  situated  at  the  entrance  of 
said  river,  and  there  laid  the  foundations  of  a  city." 
Here  were  available  lowlands  lying  by  a  secure  haven, 
and  they  were  seized  instinctively  as  the  home  of  a 
new  community.  As  the  inland  waterways  and  passes 
became  known,  they  showed  that  Manhattan  Island 
was  at  one  end  of  a  natural  highway.  ("A  great  terminal 
city  has  grown  up  because  of  the  unrivaled  combina 
tion  of  harborage  and  lines  of  interior  communication. 

New  York  could  be  no  other  than  the  chief  city  of 
the  Western  Hemisphere.  Such  a  center  must  be  on 


26  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

the  Atlantic  shore,  in  the  north  temperate  zone,  for 
there  commerce  is  most  favored  between  America 
and  the  great  nations  of  Europe.  Manhattan  Island 
has  on  either  side  many  miles  of  water  front,  at  whose 
piers  the  largest  vessels  can  lie.  A  similar  frontage 
is  afforded  across  the  North  River  by  the  New  Jersey 
shore.  Miles  of  wharfage  stretch  along  the  Long 
Island  side  of  the  East  River.  That  tidal  avenue 
leads  to  the  protected  waters  of  Long  Island  Sound, 
which  carry  the  coastwise  trade  with  New  England. 
Southward  the  inner  harbor  leads  by  a  narrow  pas 
sage  down  tathe  Lower  Bay,  Raritan  Bay,  and  Sandy 
Hook  Bay.  [When  New  York  shall  have  become  the 
first  city  of  the  world  instead  of  the  second,  she  will 
still  have  ample  room  for  the  shipping  of  all  nations 
to  rest  in  her  quiet  waters.^j 

The  perfection  of  her  harbor  might  not,  however, 
have  made  her  the  metropolis  but  for  the  inland  ways 
to  north  and  west.  Down  to  the  completion  of  the 
Erie  Canal  she  was  surpassed  by  Boston  and  Phila 
delphia.  The  latter  was  the  largest  shipping  point 
in  North  America.  But  when  the  grain  and  other 
products  of  the  West  began  to  float  down  the  Hudson, 
the  race  was  won  for  New  York.  Ships  could  come 
to  her  from  foreign  shores  and  get  a  return  cargo  on 
her  docks.  This  was  true  of  no  other  city.  Phila 
delphia  and  Baltimore  have  no  such  favorable  open 
ings  into  the  Mississippi  Valley.  Boston  lies  behind 
the  Berkshire  barrier.  About  half  of  all  the  foreign 
trade  of  the  United  States  passes  through  the  port 
of  New  York.  If  imports  are  considered,  two-thirds 
enter  this  gateway. 


THE    EASTERN   GATEWAY  27 

The  human  history  of  the  last  three  centuries  was 
possible  through  the  geographical  unfoldings  of  the 
later  geological  periods.  Imagine  the  northeastern 
United  States  as  standing  several  hundred  feet  higher 
than  now.  There  would  be  no  water  in  the  Hudson 
channel  except  what  falls  in  the  Adirondacks  and  on 
the  nearer  lands,  and  runs  seaward.  The  sea  border 
itself  would  be  nearly  a  hundred  miles  southeast  of 
New  York.  Raritan  River  would  join  the  Hudson 
from  the  west.  A  land  stream  would  come  from  the 
northeast,  along  the  line  of  the  East  River.  There 
would  be  no  harbor;  there  might  be  a  modest  town 
at  the  confluence  of  the  rivers.  Now  suppose  the 
eastern  edge  of  the  continent  sinks  slowly  down  to 
its  present  position  in  reference  to  the  surface  of  the 
sea.  Eighty  miles  of  lowland  would  be  buried  by 
the  waters.  The  fresh  water  of  the  rivers  would  be 
checked  and  mingled  with  the  brine  of  the  Atlantic. 
The  tide  would  ebb  and  flow  among  the  bays  and 
coves  around  Manhattan,  and  its  pulse  would  be  felt 
within  the  pass  of  the  Highlands  and  far  beyond. 
Such  was  the  history,  long  before  man,  even  the  sav 
age,  appeared.  The  region  was  elevated  and  dis 
sected  by  the  streams.  Long  courses  of  rock  decay 
wore  down  the  crystalline  masses  of  New  York  island 
to  a  lowland,  only  that  they  might  be  more  fiercely 
attacked  by  the  drill  and  dynamite  of  modern  days. 
The  softer  rocks  that  lay  over  and  behind  the  Pali 
sades  lava  were  disintegrated  and  swept  away.  Then 
came  the  long  submergence  and  the  "  drowning " 
of  the  streams,  giving  deep  waters  for  ships.  And 
the  tides  going  in  and  out  serve  as  a  broom  to  sweep 


28  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

the  channel.  And,  where  the  tidal  scour  is  not 
enough,  man  anchors  a  scow  and  drives  a  steam 
shovel  through  the  slime,  aiding  nature. 

We  may  add  another  short  chapter.  At  the  close 
of  the  glacial  time  the  sinking  of  the  land  had  gone 
farther  than  at  present.  Much  of  Manhattan  was 
covered  with  water.  The  Hudson  estuary  was  deeper 
and  wider  than  now.  In  these  deeper  and  broader 
waters,  at  many  sheltered  points,  fine  muds  settled 
between  the  present  sites  of  New  York  and  Albany. 
These  muds  are  often  clays,  fine,  massive,  and  blue, 
which  make  the  Hudson  Valley  the  greatest  brick- 
making  district  in  the  world.  The  connection  is  sim 
ple,  —  unlimited  clay,  a  tidal  river,  and  a  metropolis 
to  be  built.  The  muds  are  not  all  clays.  Often  they 
are  coarse  and  should  not  be  called  muds  but  sands 
and  gravels  laid  down  in  deltas,  where  the  Croton, 
Fishkill,  Catskill,  Mohawk,  and  Hoosick  discharged 
into  the  long  body  of  tidal  waters.  We  read  the 
record  again  :  uplift,  and  long  denudation  and  valley- 
making  ;  submergence,  greater  than  now,  with  soft 
deposits  along  the  valley ;  a  moderate  uplift,  bring 
ing  in  present  conditions  and  followed  by  the  advent 
of  man. 

If  clay  were  not  enough,  a  peculiar  limestone  is 
found  at  Rondout,  which,  when  ground,  affords  the 
finest  cement.  The  marbles  of  Tuckahoe,  the  brown- 
stone  of  the  Connecticut  Valley,  and  the  granites  of 
New  England  are  not  far  away,  and,  perhaps  most 
important  of  all,  a  half-dozen  trunk  railways  bring 
the  anthracite  coal  by  easy  hauls  to  the  docks  of  the 
North  River.  A  great  city  was  inevitable. 


30  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

The  development  of  human  life  along  the  Hudson 
and  Mohawk  highway  has  been  parallel  to  that  of 
New  York.  Of  forty-one  communities,  having  the 
rank  of  a  city  in  the  state  of  New  York,  eleven  are 
on  the  Hudson  and  six  are  on  the  Mohawk.  If  we 
extend  our  view  from  New  York  to  Buffalo,  four-fifths 
of  the  population  and  nine-tenths  of  the  wealth  of 
the  Empire  State  are  found  within  the  counties  bor 
dered  or  crossed  by  the  Hudson  River  and  the  Erie 
Canal.  The  east  bank  of  the  Hudson  is  almost  a 
continuous  suburb  of  New  York  up  to  the  Highlands. 
Newburg  is  at  the  north  gate  of  the  Highlands,  and 
Kingston  has  grown  up  at  the  mouth  of  the  Wallkill, 
a  tidal  branch  of  the  Hudson,  whose  valley  offers  a 
natural  road  from  the  coal  region.  The  Hudson 
Valley,  about  the  entrance  of  the  Mohawk,  forms  a 
natural  center  of  population.  Here  is  the  head  of 
navigation,  and  an  open  road  to  the  west  and  to  the 
north.  These  conditions  centered  here  the  lines  of 
travel  from  New  England.  There  is  no  good  gate 
opening  eastward,  but  the  Westfield  and  Deerfield 
valleys  of  the  Berkshires  find  their  best  western  out 
let  here.  A  fall  of  water  due  to  blockades  of  glacial 
origin  has  given  rise  to  Cohoes,  while  shipping  lines 
the  river  borders  of  Albany  and  Troy. 

The  half-dozen  cities  of  the  Mohawk  are  good  illus 
trations  of  physiographic  control.  Cohoes  has  been 
named.  Schenectady,  with  thirty  thousand  people, 
lies  on  the  great  flats,  where  the  river  issues  from 
the  uplands  upon  the  old  estuary  ground  of  the 
Hudson.  The  river  itself  has  dug  away  the  sands 
of  its  ancient  delta  and  smoothed  out  a  few  square 


THE    EASTERN    GATEWAY  31 

miles  of  alluvial  floor.  Farther  up  is  Amsterdam, 
with  twenty  thousand  people,  a  center  for  the  manu 
facture  of  knit  goods  and  carpets.  Little  Falls,  a 
small  but  busy  city,  developed  from  an  ancient 
carrying-place,  and  by  reason  of  its  water-power,  the 
primal  cause  being  a  dislocation  of  the  rocks,  which 
here  crosses  the  river  from  south  to  north.  The 
harder,  older,  and  deeper  rocks  were  brought  up, 
and  the  river  has  not  yet  finished  its  task  of  grad 
ing  its  valley  bottom  :  hence  the  "  little  falls."  Utica, 
a  city  of  sixty  thousand  people,  is  determined  by 
an  old  fording-place,  and  receives  tribute  from  south 
and  north  by  railway  lines  which  reach  New  York 
across  the  uplands,  and  open  to  the  St.  Lawrence 
through  the  Adirondacks  or  along  the  Ontario  low 
lands.  Rome  is  built  at  the  old  Oneida  carrying- 
place,  where  little  cargoes  were  borne  over  from  the 
Mohawk  and  sent  down  the  sluggish  waters  of  Wood 
Creek  toward  Oswego. 

Going  westward,  Syracuse  originated  by  reason  of 
the  brines  found  by  boring  to  the  underlying  gravels, 
but  has  other  reasons  for  her  growth,  among  which 
is  her  position  along  the  great  highway  from  east  to 
west.  A  like  word  may  be  said  of  Rochester,  while 
Buffalo  finds  assured  greatness  in  being  the  point  of 
transshipment  at  the  foot  of  Great  Lake  navigation. 
Erie  in  Pennsylvania  is  the  natural  correlative  of 
Philadelphia,  as  Buffalo  is  of  New  York.  But  Erie 
is  small  and  Buffalo  is  great.  The  explanation  is  the 
Mohawk-Hudson  Valley.  So  far  as  Philadelphia  has 
a  natural  gateway  to  the  west,  therefore,  it  is  not 
Erie  but  Pittsburg. 


32  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

If  we  consider  the  commonwealths  which  represent 
the  thirteen  colonies,  New  York,  more  truly  than 
Pennsylvania,  is  the  "  Keystone  "  state.  On  the  one 
hand  is  New  England,  whichj  as  we  shall  see  in  the 
following  chapter,  stands  in  many  ways  by  itself.  On 
the  other,  Pennsylvania  is  an  Appalachian  state  and 
is  closely  related  to  Maryland  and  Virginia.  New 
York,  with  its  harbor,  its  artery  of  travel,  and  its  front 
age  on  the  Lakes  and  the  St.  Lawrence,  is  the  key  to 
the  West  and  the  North.  She  is  not  hampered  by  the 
mountain  barriers  of  the  South,  nor  is  her  traffic 
hindered  by  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  nor  by  the  rapids 
and  the  winter  ice  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 

We  do  not  yet  know  how  much  physical  environ 
ment  molds  mental  and  spiritual  life.  We  cannot 
trace  geographical  influences  in  a  complete  way,  but 
we  gather  hints  of  their  power.  The  Hudson  country 
could  not  fail  to  be  richer  in  tradition  and  riper  in  its 
harvest  of  thought  than  some  other  portions  of  the 
commonwealth  in  which  it  lies.  For  geographic  rea 
sons  it  has  an  older  civilization  than  the  interior.  The 
old  Dutch  life  was  followed  by  an  incoming  from 
England.  These  elements  reacted  on  each  other,  as 
both  had  felt  the  shock  of  migration  across  an  ocean. 
Their  social  and  their  physical  environment  was  new. 

Dwellers  on  the  lower  Hudson  must  ever  feel  a 
more  or  less  conscious  relation  to  the  sea  and  have 
a  sense  of  neighborhood  to  its  farther  shores.  The 
ebb  and  flow  of  the  tides  and  the  passing  of  ships  are 
tokens  of  a  larger  life.  More  tangible  in  its  effects, 
perhaps,  is  the  near  metropolis.  Commercial  oppor 
tunity  has  brought  wealth.  In  some  measure,  homes 


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34  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

on  the  Hudson  may  show  how  wealth  has  conspired 
with  the  higher  tastes  to  find  serene  living  where 
nature  is  beautiful.  It  would  be  presuming  to  assign 
nature's  share  in  the  literary  unfoldings  of  the  valley, 
but  its  literature  cannot  be  less  than  a  natural  growth 
from  soil  and  atmosphere.  The  breath  of  the  sea  is 
here.  Cities  and  villages  are  old  enough  to  have 
traditions.  Mountains,  too  rugged  to  bear  but  a 
scanty  forest,  rise  from  the  borders  of  the  river. 
But  a  few  miles  away  are  the  mysterious  gorges  and 
untrodden  woods  of  the  higher  Catskills. 

Unless  one  is  plying  the  river  for  trade,  Irving  is 
the  best  guide  to  the  Hudson.  No  other  has  so  fully 
given  speech  to  her  life.  We  do  not  know  the 
measure  of  intimate  influence  that  comes  on  a  writer 
from  his  surroundings,  but  Irving  assuredly  laid  hold 
upon  the  traditions  and  the  history  of  the  region,  and 
embodied,  or  shall  we  say  created,  the  typical  spirit 
of  the  great  river.  Did  he  not  in  some  measure  do 
both  ?  His  birth  was  in  the  year  in  which  the  British 
troops  left  the  city  of  New  York  not  to  return.  As 
a  youth  he  voyaged  up  the  Hudson,  and  made  many 
journeys  along  the  Hudson  and  Mohawk  in  the  years 
that  followed.  In  the  satires  of  the  Knickerbocker 
story  he  reveals  his  knowledge  of  every  phase  of  local 
history  and  every  nook  of  the  Hudson  country.  His 
tales  of  humble  domestic  scenes  in  the  "  Legend  of 
Sleepy  Hollow  "  are  pictures,  and  the  woods  in  which 
Rip  Van  Winkle  slept  are  the  living  forests  of  the 
Catskills.  The  real  Hudson  becomes  more  real  be 
cause  idealized  and  seen  through  the  serener  atmos 
phere  of  the  older  time.  Not  far  from  the  Hudson 


THE    EASTERN    GATEWAY  35 

lived  Andrew  Jackson  Downing,  the  landscape  archi 
tect,  forerunner  of  a  generation  that  is  to  increase, 
of  men  who  are  to  enter  into  the  heart  of  nature  and 
preserve  her  freshness  and  beauty,  while  subduing 
her  to  the  uses  of  man. 

The  poet  has  not  been  forgetful  of  the  river. 
Halleck's  lines  in  praise  of  Weehawken  may  have 
a  strange  sound,  in  the  light  of  modern  changes,  but 
Drake's  "Culprit  Fay"  can  hardly  pass  out  of  date 
so  long  as  the  imagination  touches  human  feeling. 
This,  perhaps,  is  the  poem  of  the  Hudson  River,  but 
we  turn  rather  to  Bryant.  His  "  Night  Journey  of  a 
River"  must  have  been  inspired  by  the  river  of  his 
home,  and  nothing  could  better  express  the  subtle  ties 
that  bind  the  river  and  its  greatest  city  than  these  lines 
from  "  A  Scene  on  the  Hudson  "  :  — 

"River!  in  this  still  hour  thou  hast 
Too  much  of  heaven  on  earth  to  last ; 
Nor  long  may  thy  still  waters  lie, 
An  image  of  the  glorious  sky. 
Thy  fate  and  mine  are  not  repose, 
And,  ere  another  evening  close, 
Thou  to  thy  tides  shalt  turn  again. 
And  I  to  seek  the  crowd  of  men.'1 

Within  the  domain  of  the  Hudson,  also,  for  many 
years  John  Burroughs  has  lived  in  his  cottage,  and 
gone  forth,  in  winter  and  in  summer,  to  share  and 
interpret  the  life  of  her  birds  and  forests.  Curtis 
made  his  home  where  river  passes  into  ocean.  He 
was  a  lover  of  the  Hudson,  and  voices  his  loyalty,  if 
such  it  may  be  called,  to  his  own  land  in  his  fine  par 
allel  between  the  Hudson  and  the  Rhine.  "  Its 


36  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

spacious  and  stately  character,  its  varied  and  magnifi 
cent  outline,  from  the  Palisades  to  the  Catskills,  are 
as  epical  as  the  loveliness  of  the  Rhine  is  lyrical.  The 
Hudson  implies  a  continent  behind.  For  vineyards  it 
has  forests.  For  a  belt  of  water,  a  majestic  stream. 
For  graceful  and  grain-goldened  heights  it  has  impos 
ing  mountains.  There  is  no  littleness  about  the  Hud 
son,  but  there  is  in  the  Rhine.  .  .  .  The  Danube  has, 
in  parts,  glimpses  of  such  grandeur.  The  Elbe  has 
sometimes  such  delicately  pencilled  effects.  But  no 
European  river  is  so  lordly  in  its  bearing,  none  flows 
in  such  state  to  the  sea." 


CHAPTER    II 

SHORE-LINE  AND    HILLTOP  IN    NEW  ENGLAND 

NEW  ENGLAND  is  a  geographical  province.  The 
Berkshire  barrier  runs  from  southern  Connecticut  to 
its  culmination  in  the  Green  Mountains  of  northern 
Vermont  and  divides  New  England  from  New  York 
and  the  West.  Northward,  the  St.  Lawrence  is  the 
natural  boundary,  though  its  lowlands  belong  to  an 
other  political  division.  On  the  east  and  the  south 
is  the  sea. 

It  hasf"  however,  other  elements  of  geographic 
unity.  It  is,  with  small  exceptions,  a  very  ancient 
land,  as  the  geologist  counts  time.  Some  of  its  areas 
have  a  rocky  foundation  which  is  among  the  oldest 
known,  comparing  with  the  Adirondacks,  the  Pied 
mont  and  Blue  Ridge  of  the  South,  the  core  of  the 
Black  Hills,  or  the  ancient  lands  between  the  Great 
Lakes  and  Hudson  Bay.  Other  parts  of  New  Eng 
land  have  a  less  but  still  incomprehensible  antiquity; 
such  are  most  of  the  Green  Mountain  and  Berkshire 
region  and  the  districts  about  Boston  and  the  Narra- 
gansett.  The  rocks  of  the  Connecticut  Valley  in 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  are  much  younger,  yet 
their  age  must  be  reckoned  in  millions  of  years. 
Geologically  youthful  are  parts  of  Cape  Cod,  the 

37 


38  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

larger  islands,  and  the  barrier  beaches  and  marshes 
of  the  southeast. 

It  may  be  a  more  useful  description,  if  we  say  that 
about  all  of  New  England  has  felt  the  disturbing 
forces  that  build  mountains.  Most  or  all  of  the 
region  was  once  a  sea  bottom,  receiving  waste  from 
other  lands.  These  sea  floors  became  land  by  uplift, 
and  by  powerful  folding  of  the  sheets  of  rock,  form 
ing  mountains,  of  which  the  Green  and  White  Moun 
tains  are  but  remnants.  But  these  were  not  the  only 
regions  roughened  by  elevation.  If  we  study  the 
rocks  of  Rhode  Island,  or  about  Boston  or  Worces 
ter,  we  shall  find  them  as  much  disturbed  and  tangled 
as  on  the  slopes  of  Greylock  or  Mansfield.  And  they 
are  usually  crystalline,  for  by  crushing,  by  the  action 
of  water,  and  in  some  cases  of  heat,  they  have  been 
changed  from  their  original  condition.  The  limestones 
have  become  marbles  in  Vermont  and  along  the 
Housatonic ;  the  sandstones,  made  from  waste  of 
still  older  rocks,  have  turned  into  schists,  and  the 
muds  have  become  shales  or  slates. 

If  such  has  been  the  change  within,  the  change  of 
outer  form  has  been  as  great.  A  land  of  bold  moun 
tains  has  become  a  region  of  rough  hills.  This  is  one 
of  the  ways  in  which  the  great  age  of  the  land  might 
be  determined.  Southern  Maine  and  New  Hampshire, 
eastern  Massachusetts,  southern  Connecticut,  and  all 
of  Rhode  Island,  are  a  rough  lowland.  Northern  and 
western  New  England  may  originally  have  been 
higher  than  the  south  and  east,  — we  cannot  know, — 
but  all  was  lofty  and  perhaps  Alpine.  Time  enough 
has  passed  to  make  the  beds  of  rock,  transform  them 


SHORE-LINE  AND   HILLTOP  IN   NEW  ENGLAND     39 

into  mountain  ranges,  and  wear  them  down  nearly  to 
the  level  of  the  sea. 

At  some  epochs  of  this  history  volcanic  fires  were 
active,  lavas  were  poured  out,  and  explosive  erup 
tions,  like  those  of  Krakatoa  and  Pelee,  sent  forth 
clouds  of  gases  and  spread  sheets  of  ash  over  land 
and  water.  Cones  were  built,  which  have  been 
long  destroyed.  Their  roots  may  be  found  at  many 
points  along  the  rocky  shores  and  far  inland.  Sheets 
of  ash  and  lava  still  bear  testimony  to  these  days  of 
fierce  changes  when  New  England  was  an  unstable 
region  like  the  Caribbean  and  Mediterranean. 

The  reliefs  of  northern  New  England  are  not  so 
well  known  as  those  of  Massachusetts  and  the  region 
to  the  south.  The  three  more  southern  states  have 
been  completely  covered  with  mapping  by  the  system 
of  contours,  while  in  the  northern  states  only  patches 
here  and  there  have  been  thus  surveyed.  In  north 
ern  New  England  we  find  the  Green  Mountains.  On 
the  one  hand  are  valleys  and  lowlands  leading  to  the 
Champlain  and  Hudson,  and  on  the  other  are  the 
slopes  and  narrow,  fertile  terraces  and  flood  plains  of 
the  Connecticut.  Rising  to  the  heights  of  the  White 
Mountains,  we  pass  on  to  the  moderate  elevations  of 
central  and  northern  Maine,  culminating  in  Katahdin  ; 
southern  Maine  and  New  Hampshire  are  like  south 
ern  New  England. 

Through  Massachusetts  and  its  southern  neighbors 
the  crests  of  the  uplands  fall  in  with  one  another  so 
well  that  we  may  call  the  general  surface  a  plateau. 
Viewed  from  the  uplands  in  western  Massachusetts, 
the  surrounding  uplands  have  an  even  sky-line,  and 


40  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

we  may  imagine  a  continuous  surface,  which  has  later 
been  broken  by  cutting  valleys  through  it.  We  can 
thus  think  of  an  upland  passing  from  the  Berkshires 
across  the  present  Connecticut  Valley,  merging  with 
the  lower  region,  where  Worcester  stands  and  from 
which  Wachusett  rises.  Then  we  can  picture  the  up 
land  slanting  still  farther  down,  east  through  Massa 
chusetts,  and  southward  through  Connecticut  and 
Rhode  Island,  to  the  sea.  In  other  words,  if  we 
could  fill  up  all  the  valleys,  we  should  have  a  plateau 
descending  from  the  Vermont  and  New  York  border 
to  the  sea.  It  would  be  about  two  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea  in  western  Massachusetts,  about  one 
thousand  feet  around  Worcester  and  in  eastern  Con 
necticut,  and  of  less  altitude  toward  the  Atlantic  and 
the  Sound.  Physiographers  have  given  attention  to 
this  slanting  land  surface.  Not  seeing  how  it  could 
otherwise  have  been  formed,  many  think  that  the 
ancient  mountains  were  worn  nearly  to  sea-level, 
that  the  resulting  lowland  was  uplifted,  and  more  to 
the  northwest,  and  that  the  Connecticut,  Westfield, 
Housatonic,  and  other  valleys  have  since  been  sunk 
into  it.  Whatever  be  the  truth,  this  conception  helps 
us  to  see  geographic  forms  truly,  and  to  avoid  sup 
posing  that  southern  New  England  is  an  orderless 
jumble  of  rugged  lands. 

Interesting  results  follow  from  these  contrasts  be 
tween  northern  and  southern  New  England.  Forests 
prevail  in  one  and  homes  in  the  other.  Maine  has 
the  size  of  the  other  five  states  combined,  but  only  one 
in  eight  of  the  inhabitants.  Vermont  has  two  towns 
of  more  than  ten  thousand  people;  Rhode  Island  has 


SHORE-LINE  AND  HILLTOP  IN  NEW  ENGLAND    41 

eight.  Maine  has  seven  such  centers;  Massachusetts 
has  forty-seven;  while  New  York  has  but  forty-five. 
Northern  New  England  has  no  city  of  sixty  thousand 
people,  and  southern  New  England  has  fourteen  such 
communities. 

The  chief  drainage  systems  have  a  common  direc 
tion —  the  greater  rivers  flow  southward.  They  are 
mainly  longitudinal  streams,  by  which  geographers 
mean  that  they  follow  the  lines  of  mountain  foldings. 
Parallel  ridges  and  troughs  result  from  such  disturb 
ances,  and  such  troughs  controlled  the  ancient  streams. 
These  may  have  slowly  shifted  their  courses  in  the 
ages  of  their  development,  but  they  have  not  departed 
from  parallelism  with  the  mountain  ranges.  All  the 
great  streams  are  tidal  at  their  mouths,  but  some 
have  sunk  their  inland  valleys  more  effectively  than 
others.  Thus  the  Connecticut  has  graded  its  course 
close  to  sea-level  across  Massachusetts,  while  the  bed 
of  the  Housatonic  at  Pittsfield  is  a  thousand  feet 
above  the  tide. 

In  another  way  New  England  has  geographic  unity ; 
it  was  all  invaded  by  land  ice  in  the  Glacial  Period. 
For  detailed  accounts  of  the  Ice  Age,  the  reader 
should  look  to  special  works ;  it  is  within  our  prov 
ince  here  to  see  in  a  general  way  the  changes  wrought 
on  the  face  of  the  land.  The  chief  movement  was 
from  the  north  and  northwest,  down  upon  the  Sound 
and  the  Atlantic.  That  the  ice  was  thick,  we  know, 
because  it  overswept  Katahdin,  Washington,  and 
Mansfield.  And  we  have  more  startling  proof  in 
the  fact  that  it  disregarded  the  southern  trend  of 
the  western  mountains  and  valleys,  and  flowed  freely 


42  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

across  them  on  a  diagonal.  Many  years  ago  this 
was  shown  by  Sir  Charles  Lyell  and  others,  who 
observed  trains  of  boulders  near  Richmond,  Mass., 
which  were  carried  and  distributed  in  this  manner. 

We  know  that  the  enveloping  mantle  crossed  the 
place  of  the  present  Long  Island  Sound,  and  heaped 
its  parallel  belts  of  moraine  in  Long  Island.  These 
moraines  run  from  east  to  west,  and  similar  belts  are 
found  in  southern  Rhode  Island,  from  Point  Judith  to 
Watch  Hill;  along  the  southern  part  of  Cape  Cod, 
from  Buzzard's  Bay  to  Nauset  Beach ;  and  along  the 
shores  of  Martha's  Vineyard  and  Nantucket.  These 
and  others  are  the  terminal  moraines  of  the  New  Eng 
land  ice  sheet.  More  full  of  meaning  in  our  present 
study  is  the  heavy  scoring  which  the  surfaces  of  soil 
and  rock  everywhere  sustained.  In  a  country  which 
has  not  been  plowed  by  the  ice,  soils  develop  by  the 
wasting  of  the  rocks  for  long  periods.  Hence,  below 
the  proper  soils,  the  surface  rocks  are  discolored  or 
half-disintegrated.  Nearly  everywhere  in  New  Eng 
land  these  old  soils  and  corroded  rocks  were  pared 
away,  and  a  new  cover  of  "drift"  laid  upon  the 
freshly  exposed  and  unchanged  bed-rock.  This  drift 
was  formed  by  mingling,  in  and  under  the  glacier,  the 
rock  fragments  eroded  by  the  ice,  and  the  preglacial 
soils  lying  to  the  north  and  northwest.  We  are  not 
to  understand  that  this  new  and  mixed  material  had 
been  pushed  for  long  distances.  Some  of  it  was  far- 
traveled,  as  we  know  by  boulders  from  remote  ledges, 
but  most  of  it  came  to  rest  again  within  a  few  miles 
of  the  place  of  its  origin. 

The  records  of  this  scoring  are  often  to  be  seen 


FIG.  7.     Crawford  Notch,  White  Mountains. 


44  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

when  the  bed-rock  is  stripped.  They  are  the  glacial 
grooves,  or  striae,  and  also  the  rounded  or  elliptically 
carved  crests  of  exposed  rocky  hills,  which  were  at 
tacked  and  polished  into  their  present  forms  by  the 
overriding  ice.  We  are  not  to  suppose  that  the  gla 
cier  removed  a  large  thickness  of  the  rock  from  the 
general  surface.  But  exposed  and  narrow  elevations 
may  have  been  planed  away  for  many  feet,  and  val 
leys  may  have  been  deepened  where  powerful  ice 
masses  occupied  them  for  a  long  time.  Thus  the 
complexion  of  the  country  was  changed  not  a  little 
by  giving  the  surface  rocks  and  soils  a  hard  push  and 
a  new  distribution. 

Much  of  the  drift  consists  of  clay  and  stones  of 
various  size,  promiscuously  mingled  and  spread,  some 
times  evenly,  over  the  land.  Moraine  heaps  and  the 
smoother  cover  of  this  stony  clay  are  often  thickly 
sprinkled  with  the  great  boulders  which  are  so  com 
mon  a  feature  in  the  landscape  of  New  England. 
Sometimes  these  great  stones  are  delicately  perched, 
and  some  are  known  as  rocking-stones,  whose  many 
tons  may  be  swayed  by  the  push  of  a  hand.  Pro 
fessor  Shaler  has  ingeniously  shown,  from  these,  that 
no  violent  earthquake  could  have  visited  New  Eng 
land  since  the  Glacial  Period,  else  would  these  stones 
have  rolled  over  and  assumed  a  more  stable  position. 

There  are  other  sorts  of  glacial  accumulation  of 
land  waste.  Glacialists  give  the  name  drumlin  to 
hills  of  curving  crest,  parallel  to  each  other  and 
trending  in  the  direction  in  which  the  ice  moved. 
Such  are  the  islands  of  Boston  Harbor,  though  their 
curves  have  been  marred,  as  sea  waves  have  trimmed 


SHORE-LINE  AND  HILLTOP  IN  NEW  ENGLAND    45 

the  outer  edges  of  these  half-submerged  glacial  hills. 
They  abound,  unaltered,  however,  about  Boston  and 
Worcester  and  along  the  lower  Merrimac.  Such  a 
hill  is  a  mass  of  the  boulder  clay,  or  "till,"  modified 
in  form  by  the  ice  moving  over  it.  It  was  formed 
under  the  ice,  therefore,  while  the  moraines  gather 
chiefly  about  its  edge.  Long  gravel  ridges  occur  in 
some  parts  of  New  England  ;  they  often  have  steep 
slopes,  a  sharp  crest,  and  are  serpentine  in  their 
curves  ;  they  may  be  flanked  by  swamps,  and  thus 
the  crest  line  has  not  seldom  been  adopted  as  the  line 
of  a  roadway  ;  ridges  of  astonishing  length  are  found 
in  southern  Maine.  They  were  usually  deposited  in 
the  beds  of  streams  coursing  in  tunnels  under  the  ice 
sheet. 

Interruption  of  the  direct  flow  of  surface  waters  to 
the  sea  is  a  most  striking  result  of  ice  work.  Sections 
of  old  valleys  were  clogged  with  drift.  Lakes  formed 
behind  the  dam,  and  in  sinking  new  outlet  courses, 
rapids  and  waterfalls  have  been  formed.  In  a  variety 
of  other  ways  lakes  came  into  existence,  and  thus  to 
the  glacier  we  must  attribute  the  thousands  of  lakes 
or  tiny  ponds  that  form  the  eye  of  the  landscape 
everywhere  and  minister  in  many  ways  to  the  needs 
of  man. 

Thus  two  sorts  of  geological  events  have  affected 
New  England  everywhere,  —  the  ancient  mountain 
building  and  the  recent  invasion  of  the  ice.  These 
have  deeply  influenced  human  life  in  the  few  centu 
ries  in  which  civilized  men  have  dwelt  here.  The 
rocks  are,  as  a  rule,  profoundly  changed  by  disturbing 
forces,  or  they  are  deep-seated  masses  brought  to  the 


46  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

surface  by  denudation.  Hence  granites,  marbles,  and 
^slates  abound  and  furnish  the  best  building  materials. 
As  early  as  1737  the  Boston  builders  began  to  gather 
and  dress  granite  boulders.  The  walls  of  King's 
Chapel  in  Tremont  Street  grew  thus  out  of  the  fields. 
In  1825  the  quarries  at  Quincy  were  opened,  the 
chief  occasion  being  the  building  of  the  memorial  on 
Bunker  Hill.  Then  the  use  of  granite  began  to  be 
general,  until  every  New  England  state  opened  its 
stores  of  this  rock,  soon  to  appear  in  every  eastern 
city  and  burial  ground.  Great  excitement  was  aroused, 
when,  in  1697,  some  one  found  limestone  at  Newbury, 
in  Massachusetts.  Thirty  teams  a  day  were  soon 
hauling  it  from  the  newly  opened  quarries,  for  here 
tofore  the  colonists  had  depended  on  the  shells  of  the 
seashore  for  their  lime.  But  most  of  New  England 
limestone  is  in  the  form  of  marble  and  lies  along  her 
western  border,  in  Connecticut,  Massachusetts,  and 
Vermont.  Another  product  of  geologic  change  is 
the  beds  of  slate,  made  from  ancient  deposits  of  clay. 
As  Vermont  leads  all  the  states  in  marble,  so  it  is 
second  only  to  Pennsylvania  in  this  product,  while  a 
few  quarries  are  open  in  Maine  and  Massachusetts. 
Isolated  mineral  industries  are  afforded  by  the  mica 
deposits  of  Grafton  County  in  New  Hampshire  and 
the  corundum  of  Chester,  Mass. 

The  soils  are  the  waste  of  these  ancient  rocks, 
stirred  by  the  glacier  and  mingled  with  the  products  of 
_jlLant— decay.  It  is  not  merely  a  modern  notion  that 
New  England  soils  are  somewhat  barren.  An  old 
writing  on  Virginia,  dating  from  London  in  1649, 
says  of  the  Northern  colony,  "  Except  for  the  fish- 


SHORE-LINE  AND   HILLTOP  IN  NEW   ENGLAND     47 

ing  there  is  not  much  in  that  land,  which  in  respect 
of  frost  and  snow  is  as  Scotland  compared  with  Eng 
land,  and  so  barren  withal  that,  except  a  herring  be 
put  into  the  hole  that  you  set  the  corn  or  maize  in, 
it  will  not  come  up."  This  would  scarcely  appeal  to 
the  gardeners  about  Boston,  and  doubtless  the  writer 
had  not  looked  upon  the  lands  that  were  to  become 
the  tobacco  fields  and  peach  orchards  of  the  Connec 
ticut  Valley. 

Yet  it  is  true  that  the  uplands  predominate,  and 
the  soils  of  the  uplands  are  not  rich.  Much  of  the 
fine  soil  material  of  the  preglacial  time  has  been 
washed  into  the  sea  by  the  streams  that  flowed  forth 
from  the  ice  sheet.  The  drift,  from  which  the  true 
surface  soil  is  derived,  contains  a  large  proportion  of 
coarse  waste,  broken  mechanically  from  the  bed-rock 
by  the  plucking  and  grinding  of  the  ice,  and  thus  the 
minerals  are  not  ready  for  the  nutrition  of  plants. 
The  soils  are  often  thin,  or  lie  on  steep  and  bouldery 
slopes,  and  the  range  of  crops  is  limited  by  the  shorter 
summer  and  severer  cold  of  the  winter  months.  The 
decline  of  general  agriculture  has  been  a  central  fea 
ture  in  the  later  history  of  New  England.  No  end 
of  writing  has  found  here  a  theme,  and  a  few  of  the 
writers  have  viewed  the  change  with  cheerfulness, 
but  more  with  despair.  It  is  not  inspiring  to  see 
family  mansions  decay,  farms  abandoned,  and  un- 
tended  roadways  furrowed  with  incipient  ravines,  or 
to  find  villages  in  stagnation,  with  churches  neglected, 
ancient  academies  abandoned,  and  the  ambitious  chil 
dren  of  the  fathers  gone  to  the  cities,  the  prairies, 
and  the  Pacific  coast.  But  the  history  could  not  be 


48         GEOGRAPHIC  INFLUENCES 

different  in  the  geographic  unfolding  of  the  United 
States. 

While  a  compact  people  of  English  birth  were  held 
together  on  this  first  American  ground,  they  forced  a 
living  from  the  soil,  and  built  at  last  the  New  Eng 
land  of  fifty  and  a  hundred  years  ago.  But  the  prai 
ries  and  the  great  Northwest  have  settled  the  case 
for  the  farmer  in  New  England.  He  must  change 
his  occupation  or  give  himself  to  special  forms  of  til 
lage,  and  while  there  is  hardship  and  pathos  in  the 
change,  the  end  is  not  to  be  deplored.  There  are 
weights  to  be  thrown  into  the  other  side  of  the  bal 
ance.  Shaler  has  shown  how-  the  very  coarseness  of 
the  soil  elements  insures  permanence :  these  minute, 
pebbly  fragments  of  rock  will  gradually  disintegrate 
and  yield,  in  soluble  form,  the  elements  needed  by 
plants,  and  the  soils  may  continue  to  have  moderate 
fertility  long  after  the  soils  of  the  Mississippi  Valley 
are  exhausted,  or  begin  to  require  large  use  of  ferti 
lizers.  And  it  is  wholly  to  be  desired  that  much  New 
England  upland  should  relapse  into  forest.  Moun 
tainous  and  glacial  conditions  have  combined  to  fit 
these  lands  for  trees  and  for  nothing  else. 

In  some  neighborhoods  new  methods  of  tillage, 
carried  on  with  greater  intelligence,  and  often  in 
volving  special  crops,  for  which  the  soil  is  fit  or  for 
which  there  is  local  demand,  are  beginning  to  change 
the  face  of  rural  New  England.  New  and  better 
roads  will  bring  into  contact  with  the  general  life 
many  corners  that  have  been  smothered  by  their 
isolation.  As  population  grows,  the  swamp  lands,  of 
which  there  are  some  thousands  of  square  miles, 


SHORE-LINE  AND   HILLTOP  IN  NEW  ENGLAND     49 

will  begin  to  be  reclaimed.  They  are  in  patches  in 
the  interior  and  along  the  shore-lines,  and  are  either 
glacial  or  tidal  in  origin.  They  will  be  largely  re 
claimed  and  become  as  productive  lands  as  anywhere 
lie  under  the  plow. 

Nature,  as  we  have  seen,  invites  the  permanence 
of  the  forest  in  New  England,  and  man  has  not  yet 
completed  his  defiance  of  her  will.  Fifty  years  ago 
it  was  thought  impossible  to  exhaust  the  pine  forests 
of  Maine;  by  1880,  however,  the  Pine  Tree  State 
was  importing  white  pine  from  Michigan  and  Canada, 
and  her  lumbering  was  mainly  upon  the  spruce,  which 
in  early  days  was  left  almost  untouched.  Still,  the 
white  pine  was  not  destroyed  ;  for  in  many  areas  the 
second  growth  has  been  spared,  forest  fires  have 
been  restrained,  and  the  beginnings  of  rational  for 
estry  are  practiced.  Intelligence  is  growing  and 
conviction  is  deepening  in  New  England,  and  there 
is  hope  that  the  lumberman's  ravages  in  the  White 
Mountains  may  be  stayed,  keeping  the  crown  of 
glory  on  the  uplands,  and  saving  the  valleys  from 
destruction  by  floods  of  water  and  by  the  hillside 
waste  which  devastates  the  fields  of  the  riverside. 

Even  Connecticut  is  a  much  forested  state.  Her 
stirring  towns,  growing  cities,  and  farms  of  the  low 
lands  appeal  first  to  our  thought ;  but  a  forest  map  of 
Connecticut  carries  the  green,  used  as  a  symbol  of  the 
woodland,  widely  over  the  state.  Such  a  map  seems 
more  green  than  white,  and  points  to  wide  areas  on  the 
east  and  west  of  the  central  river  suited  only  to  the 
growth  of  trees. 

A  recent  writer  has  drawn  a  picture  of  the  neigh- 


50  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

boring  state, — its  western  half,  —  "  In  Wildest  Rhode 
Island."  A  strange  title  is  this  for  the  smallest  and 
most  densely  peopled  of  our  states,  and  one  of  the 
most  ancient,  centering  in  great  towns  and  busy 
villages  with  humming  spindles,  on  the  waters  of 
Narragansett.  But  draw  a  line  from  north  to  south, 
dividing  the  little  commonwealth  into  halves.  West 
of  the  line  are  ten  back  townships  and  less  than  six 
per  cent  of  the  population  of  Rhode  Island.  Here 
are  some  of  the  well-worn  mountains  of  New  Eng 
land.  Rightly  do  we  call  them  hills,  for  they  show 
but  a  few  hundred  feet  of  relief.  In  five  of  these 
townships,  during  the  last  century,  there  was  a  loss  of 
one-third  to  more  than  one-half  of  the  people.  All 
the  features  of  New  England  rural  decline  are  here ; 
and  whether  forests,  and  estates  of  the  rich,  or  truck 
farms,  towns,  and  electric  railways  will  cover  these 
lands  in  future  days  is  a  question  unanswered. 

Yet  another  persistent  thread  of  New  England  his 
tory  began  to  take  form  in  glacial  times.  Before 
these  days  the  streams  had  flowed  so  long  in  their 
courses  that  they  had  smoothed  their  channels  and 
made  easy  grades  to  the  sea.  When  the  ice  finally 
disappeared,  these  old  valleys  were  often  left  in  a 
condition  of  blockade.  Banks  and  massive  piles  of 
drift  lay  where  the  waters  had  run,  and  they  forced  the 
renewed  streams  to  seek  other  courses.  In  a  short 
distance,  commonly,  the  old  valley  would  be  resumed, 
but  in  passing  around  the  barrier  the  river  would 
sink  its  channel  upon  the  rocks,  forming  water 
falls,  or  rapids.  This  concentration  of  descent  has 
created  the  available  water-power  of  New  England 


52  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

and  determined  the  sites  of  many  of  her  towns  and 
cities. 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Peters,  who,  being  a  Tory,  took 
refuge  in  London  in  Revolutionary  days,  had  visited 
the  Connecticut  Valley,  and  described  the  river  as  flow 
ing  fast  enough  at  a  certain  point  to  float  iron  crow 
bars.  Here  grew  up  Bellows  Falls,  with  its  factories; 
and  the  visitor  may  read  more  sure  proofs  of  the  river's 
power  in  the  pot-holes  that  pierce  the  rocky  bed, 
and  in  the  terraces  that  rise  like  stairs  on  the  slopes 
above  the  town. 

Several  inland  cities  have  a  similar  origin.  Such 
are  Lewiston  in  Maine,  Manchester  in  New  Hamp 
shire,  and  Lowell,  Lawrence,  and  Holyoke  in  Mas 
sachusetts.  Lowell  is  a  splendid  example,  founded 
three-quarters  of  a  century  ago,  and  having  now  nearly 
one  hundred  thousand  people  and  about  one  thousand 
factories  and  mills  of  various  kinds.  This  great  center 
of  production  was  located  by  a  physiographic  feature, 
—the  falls  of  the  Merrimac.  For  a  similar  reason  Hol 
yoke  4ias  grown  up  on  the  Connecticut  River,  with  its 
great  granite  dam,  its  spacious  raceways,  and  its  enor 
mous  business,  in  which,  as  well  as  in  population,  it  has 
become  a  rival  of  its  near  neighbor,  Springfield. 

Some  cities  combine  the  advantages  of  water-power 
and  tidal  highways.  In  other  words,  the  falls  or 
rapids  of  glacial  origin  occur  at  the  head  of  tide 
water,  and  cities  would  naturally  follow,  —  such  as 
Pawtucket,  Norwich,  Fall  River,  and  Augusta.  It  is 
to  be  remembered  that  in  many  cases,  as  notably  at 
Fall  River,  water-power  has  been  largely  supplemented 
by  steam,  since,  once  established,  a  manufacturing 


SHORE-LINE  AND  HILLTOP   IN  NEW  ENGLAND     53 

industry  is  likely  to  develop  in  a  center  made  famous 
by  it  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  available  power. 

The  state  of  Maine  has  about  230  miles  of  shore 
line,  reckoned  in  a  direct  line  from  Kittery  to  the  St. 
Croix  River.  But  if  one  should  follow  the  border 
of  all  its  bays  and  headlands,  and  encircle  all  the 
islands,  he  would  traverse  more  than  two  thousand 
miles  of  beach,  so  intricate  is  the  labyrinth  of  the  Pine 
Tree  State's  ocean  border.  For  the  most  part  it  is  a 
rugged  shore.  Rocky  headlands  stand  out  to  sea,  and 
meshes  of  landlocked  waters  extend  inland  from  ten  to 
forty  miles.  The  only  part  of  the  shore-line  that  is  not 
thus  broken  is  between  Kittery  and  Portland,  at  the 
southwest.  All  the  rivers  have  tidal  mouths,  and  illus 
trate  in  their  cities,  in  a  small  way,  the  conditions  of 
London,  Bristol,  and  Liverpool.  These  deep  valleys 
are  commonly  explained  as  due  to  river  work  when  the 
land  was  higher  than  now,  with  submergence  follow 
ing.  It  is  the  same  story  as  that  of  the  Hudson,  but 
we  do  not  know  how  much  the  channels  were  deepened 
by  glacial  ice.  Glacier,  river,  and  the  sinking  of  the 
lands  may  have  joined  with  the  sea  in  fashioning  such 
a  shore-line. 

Massachusetts  has  also  a  rough  shore-line,  but  with 
more  variety  than  in  Maine.  Long  strips  of  sandy 
beach  alternate  with  coves  and  deep  and  spacious 
bays.  Cape  Ann  is  a  well-worn  but  still  jagged 
headland,  thrust  out  among  the  breakers  of  the 
Atlantic.  Tipped  with  granite  and  girded  with  vol 
canic  dikes,  this  land  is  not  easily  overcome  by  the 
onset  of  the  waves.  On  the  south  a  secure  haven 
has  led  to  the  growth  of  Gloucester ;  but  to  the  north 


54 


GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 


are  the  long,  smooth  curves  of  Plum  Island  and  Salis 
bury  Beach,  kept  apart  only  by  the  outflow  of  the 
Merrimac.  These  are  low  and  sandy  barrier  beaches, 
built  and  shaped  by  wave  and  wind,  and  backed  by 
salt  marshes  and  quiet  bays,  south  and  north  of 
Newburyport. 


FIG.  9.     A  Rocky  Shore,  Marblehead  Neck. 

South  of  the  Cape  is  Boston  Bay,  with  a  ragged 
shore,  but  not  so  broken  as  in  more  ancient  days. 
The  work  of  waves  and  currents  tells  its  own  story, 
if  we  study  a  large-scale  map.  Low  and  narrow 
beaches  have  been  built,  joining  former  rocky  islands 
to  the  mainland,  giving  us  Marblehead  Neck  and 
Nahant.  The  drumlins  are  wave-worn  and  have 
helped  to  furnish  the  lines  of  waste  that  now  offer 
a  continuous  succession  of  curved  shores  from  Point 
Shirley  to  Point  of  Pines.  Such  is  the  story  of  Nan- 


SHORE-LINE  AND  HILLTOP    IN  NEW  ENGLAND     55 

tasket  Beach  from  Long  Beach  Rock  to  Point  Aller- 
ton.  These  beaches  and  the  islands  that  lie  between 
seclude  Boston  Harbor  from  Boston  Bay  and  protect 
the  shipping  from  Atlantic  storms.  The  Mystic, 
Charles,  and  Neponset  rivers  have  shallowed  the 
fringes  of  the  harbor,  and  man  has  contributed  his 
own  large  share  to  create  dry  lands  for  the  Eastern 
metropolis. 

Then  Cape  Cod  sends  its  magnificent  curve  into 
the  Atlantic  and  incloses  the  waters  of  Massachu 
setts  Bay.  Here  the  hard  rocks  give  way,  and  lands 
of  modest  altitude  are  composed  of  youthful  strata 
mantled  w^th  glacial  drift  and  shifting  sand-dunes. 
Lakes  and  swamps  abound,  and  smooth  shore-lines 
rule  from  Buzzards  Bay  around  to  Provincetown,  and, 
indeed,  nearly  everywhere,  also,  on  the  inner  shore  of 
the  Cape.  The  narrow  eastern  arm  of  the  Cape  was 
once  wider  than  now,  but  the  waves,  attacking  from 
the  east,  have  trimmed  the  shore-line,  and  the  result 
ing  land  waste  has  been  swept  up  and  down  the 
shore,  or  drifted  out  into  deeper  waters.  Southward, 
Nauset  Beach  and  Monomoy  Island  have  been 
formed.  Northward,  the  sands  have  been  carried 
around  to  the  west  and  south,  building  the  hooked 
spit  that  incloses  Provincetown  Harbor.  Sparse 
population,  little  towns,  and  limited  tillage  of  the 
soil,  —  such  is  the  law  that  nature  lays  upon  this  frail 
and  exposed  foreland. 

Much  that  may  be  said  of  Cape  Cod  is  true  of 
Marthas  Vineyard  and  Nantucket  The  eye  needs 
but  little  training  to  mark  the  moulding  of  waves  and 
currents  on  these  shores.  Nantucket  is  a  crescent, 


56  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

with  its  concave  shore  fronting  the  mainland,  trimmed 
here  and  built  out  there,  until  the  lines  are  smooth 
and  flowing.  In  old  days  many  shallow  bays  pierced 
the  southern  lowlands  of  Marthas  Vineyard.  Every 
intervening  headland,  built  of  yielding  materials,  has 
been  shortened  in,  and  the  eroded  material  swept 
across  the  openings  of  the  bays,  making  them  into 
lakes. 

Turning  again  to  the  mainland,  we  may  contrast 
the  ragged  outline  of  Buzzards  Bay  with  the  smooth 
borders  of  Cape  Cod.  To  the  westward,  the  edge  of 
the  lands  resembles  that  of  Maine,  but  is  not  so  con 
tinuously  irregular.  Narragansett  waters  are,  how 
ever,  deeply  landlocked,  and  represent  a  "  drowned" 
trunk  stream,  whose  chief  branches  were  the  Taunton, 
Blackstone,  and  Pawtuxet.  Here  we  have  the  great 
physiographic  feature  of  Rhode  Island,  and  it  is 
hardly  too  much  to  say  that  the  existence  of  the  state 
as  an  independent  commonwealth  hinges  upon  it. 

In  Connecticut  a  dozen  large  towns  and  cities  line 
the  waters  of  bays  or  stand  near  the  mouths  of  tidal 
streams.  The  Mystic,  Thames,  Niantic,  Connecticut, 
Quinnipiac,  Housatonic,  and  Norwalk  are  the  tidal 
rivers,  great  and  small,  that  enter  the  sound.  The 
Thames  is  followed  by  the  tides  to  Norwich,  fifteen 
miles,  and  the  Connecticut  to  Hartford,  more  than 
forty  miles.  The  fading  out  of  the  uplands  makes 
a  shore-line  railway  possible,  and  the  protected  waters 
of  Long  Island  Sound  offer  a  parallel  highway  for 
coastwise  communication. 

New  England  has  been  compared  with  Northern 
Europe.  These  regions  are  alike  in  important  ways,  — 


SHORE-LINE  AND   HILLTOP  IN  NEW  ENGLAND     57 

in  their  low  and  ancient  mountains,  in  the  prevalence 
of  the  glacial  ice,  and  in  their  broken  shores.  Every 
city  of  the  sea  border  has  a  story  well  worth  the 
telling,  and  none  of  more  variety  and  fascination 
than  peaceful  and  ancient  Salem,  with  its  decaying 
wharves,  which  no  more  receive  consignments  from 
the  remotest  lands.  As  with  New  York,  so  in  a  less 
striking  way  here,  the  lines  of  inland  communication 
have  turned  the  balance.  Boston  has  a  more  spacious 
harbor  than  Salem,  and  from  Boston  the  great  rail 
ways  lead  out  westward.  Where  the  railways  meet 
the  shipping  gathers  also,  and  Boston  is  the  one 
great  port  of  New  England.  Portland,  Providence, 
and  New  London  must  be  content  with  coastwise 
shipping  because  Boston  is  the  New  England  link  be 
tween  foreign  lands  and  the  interior  of  our  own.  But 
the  records  of  the  past  may  well  remind  us  that  Salem 
once  led  the  shipping  of  the  United  States,  and  Prov 
idence  sent  more  vessels  from  her  harbor  than  set  sail 
from  the  piers  of  New  York. 

Many  New  England  coast  towns  have  seen  their 
life  transformed  through  the  decline  of  fishing. 
Several  causes  have  led  to  this  decay.  Canadian 
catches  have  been  admitted  on  more  favorable  terms ; 
the  Chesapeake,  the  Great  Lakes,  and  the  salmon  of 
the  Pacific  have  come  into  competition;  other  marine 
foods  have  grown  in  favor  ;  and  preservation  in  various 
ways  has  made  the  rivalry  of  remote  regions  effec 
tive.  Hence  the  houses  of  Marblehead  may  be  as 
quaint  and  her  streets  as  narrow  as  they  were,  but 
shoes  have  taken  the  place  of  the  fisherman's  schooner 
and  the  sailor's  yarns.  Yet  New  England  has  her 


58  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

calling  from  the  sea  and  can  never  turn  her  face  alone 
to  the  land.  Even  fishing  thrives,  but  centers  itself 
at  a  few  places,  as  at  Gloucester,  after  the  more  effec 
tive  fashion  of  modern  times.  Many  a  fisherman  has 
turned  to  lobster-catching,  which  saves  him  from  long 
and  dangerous  absences  from  home,  or  he  fully  with- 


FlG.  10.     The  Sea  from  Burial  Hill,  Plymouth. 

draws  himself  from  gathering  sea  food,  and  makes  his 
village,  his  home,  and  his  skill  with  oar  and  sail  min 
ister  to  seekers  of  rest  from  the  cities. 

Like  the  St.  Lawrence  country  and  the  Carolinas, 
New  England  was  discovered  from  the  sea.  For  our 
present  study  it  does  not  matter  whether  the  Vikings 
came  to  this  shore,  or  whether  "  Vinland  "  was  their 
name  for  a  part  of  southern  New  England.  The 
real  discoverers  are  more  modern.  Fifteen  years 


SHORE-LINE  AND  HILLTOP  IN   NEW  ENGLAND     59 

before  the  Pilgrims  came,  Champlain  had  sailed  from 
the  North  and  coasted  along  the  shores ;  he  named 
Mount  Desert  and  entered  the  Penobscot ;  the  peaks 
of  the  White  Mountains  caught  his  eye  from  the 
northwest,  and  rounding  Cape  Ann,  he  recognized  a 
good  harbor,  where  Gloucester  now  is,  for  he  called 
it  Beauport.  Later  he  found  safety  in  Plymouth 
Harbor,  and  doubling  the  greater  cape,  made  his 
farthest  south  in  Nauset  Harbor.  Three  years  earlier, 
Gosnold  was  exploring  the  southern  shores  and  gave 
names  to  the  Elizabeth  Islands,  Marthas  Vineyard, 
and  Cape  Cod. 

When  we  study  the  first  occupation  and  earliest 
migrations  by  New  England  colonists,  the  broad  fact 
appears  that  drainage  lines  did  not  control.  There 
are  no  such  waves  of  movement  up  a  river  as  we 
see  along  the  Hudson  and  Mohawk.  Had  the  May 
flower  come  to  land  in  the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut 
River,  the  history  might  have  been  different ;  but 
the  lines  of  human  movement  were  transverse  rather 
than  longitudinal.  Plymouth,  Boston,  and  Salem 
were  natural  points  of  approach,  and  there  history 
begins.  Roger  Williams  and  his  followers  went 
across  the  low  hills  from  the  Massachusetts  colonies 
and  found  a  natural  resting-place  in  the  first  great 
valley  and  at  the  head  of  Narragansett.  The  next 
wave  of  population  crossed  the  low  plateau  to  the 
westward  and  found  the  fertile  lands  of  the  Connecti 
cut  Valley ;  beyond  rose  the  Berkshire  barrier,  and 
life  gathered  along  the  river,  clearings  grew,  towns 
rose,  and  there  was  a  forecast  of  the  home  of  men, 
of  industry,  and  of  education,  which  now  lies  between 


6o 


GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 


Long  Island  Sound 
and  the  north  bor 
der  of  Massachusetts. 
Here  are  at  least  six 
institutions  of  higher 
learning,  a  network  of 
railways,  mills  without 
number,  and  scenery, 
not  Alpine,  but  in  its 
own  way  magnificent. 
Let  one  stand  on 
Mount  Holyoke  and 
look  into  the  geologic 
past;  go  far  back  in 
the  record  which  lies 
about  and  below,  and 
there  will  be  a  spa 
cious  gulf  between 
lofty  uplands  on 
either  hand  and  lead 
ing  down  to  the  sea ; 
the  tides  go  in  and 
out,  and  streams  bear 
in  waste  from  east 
and  west,  —  ancestors 
of  the  Westfield, 
Deerfield,  and  Chico- 
pee  rivers.  Curious 
reptiles  throng  the 
mud-flats  when  the 
tide  is  out  and  leave 
their  tracks  to  be  un- 


SHORE-LINE  AND  HILLTOP  IN  NEW  ENGLAND     6l 

covered  in  later  times,  and  sometimes  volcanic  eruptions 
cover  the  muddy  bottoms  with  sheets  of  lava.  As  time 
passes,  the  lands  are  elevated,  the  muds  are  hardened, 
the  resulting  shales  and  sandstones  and  sandwiched 
beds  of  lava  are  tipped  to  the  eastward  and  south 
eastward.  Then  the  softer  sands  and  shales  are 
etched  away  by  long  processes  of  weathering  and 
stream  work,  and  the  western  edges  of  the  thick, 
hard  lavas  form  mountain  ridges,  the  hanging  hills  of 
Meriden,  or  Mount  Tom,  steep  and  columnar  on  the 
west  and  sloping  on  the  east.  Curving  to  the  east, 
where  the  Connecticut  cuts  the  range,  we  have  Mount 
Holyoke,  which  disappears  southward  from  Amherst. 
The  glacial  ice,  the  glacial  floods,  the  terraces,  flood 
plains,  and  ox-bows  of  the  river,  — these  represent  the 
later  history,  leading  to  man's  advent. 

The  aborigines  also  regarded  the  Berkshires  as  a 
barrier,  protecting  them  in  some  measure  from  the 
fiercer  savages  of  the  Long  House.  But  as  now,  so 
then,  the  wall  was  not  impassable,  for  sometimes  the 
elders  of  the  Iroquois  came  across  to  collect  their 
tributes  of  wampum.  The  massacres  of  the  valley 
mark  its  lowlands  as  then  a  border  country,  and  from 
that  time  until  late  in  the  last  century  we  have  had  a 
migrating  frontier,  something  which  belongs  only  to 
a  young  and  expanding  nation. 

The  early  colonists  may  well  have  felt  surprise,  if 
not  dismay,  at  the  severity  of  the  winters  that  greeted 
them.  They  had  come  from  a  mild  climate  in  latitude 
52°  ;  and  here  in  latitude  42°,  ten  degrees  nearer  the 
equator,  they  met  the  keen  cold  and  fierce  changes  of 
New  England  winter.  We  must  not  forget  the  dif- 


62  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

ferences,  however,  between  north  and  south  in  this 
region.  The  Northmen  might  have  found  soft  winter 
weather  south  of  Cape  Cod  ;  for  even  the  waters  show 
a  difference  of  temperature,  and  bluefish  and  some 
other  marine  creatures  abound  south  of  the  Cape  and 
are  absent  from  more  northern  seas. 

New  England  could  not  be  the  key  of  Eastern 
America  in  war.  Her  valleys  do  not  lead  to  the 
heart  of  the  continent,  but  northward  into  rugged 
lands  by  the  St.  Lawrence.  On  the  west  is  a  moun 
tain  barrier  which  has  never  been  crossed  by  a  large 
body  of  armed  men.  Causes  that  lay  in  the  people, 
and  not  in  their  land,  gave  to  New  England  the  open 
ing  events  of  the  American  Revolution.  In  that  first 
short  act  certain  geographic  features  came  into  the 
settings  of  the  stage.  Among  these  were  the  drum- 
lins ;  such  are  Breed's  Hill  and  Bunker  Hill ;  and  it 
was  the  modest  heights  of  Dorchester  whose  fortifi 
cation  by  Washington  made  Boston  untenable  for  the 
enemy.  After  the  latter  withdrew  to  New  York,  New 
England  was  almost  a  stranger  to  military  operations. 

We  have  already  discovered  some  of  the  trends  of 
New  England  life  and  have  seen  how  they  flow  from 
her  physiographic  conditions.  The  decline  of  the 
old  agriculture  was  inevitable  and  need  not  be  re 
gretted.  The  sons  and  daughters  of  the  farmers 
have  gone  to  the  factory,  to  business  in  the  cities,  to 
the  prairies.  Boulder  fences  have  fallen  down,  houses 
are  deserted,  and  fields  grown  with  saplings ;  but 
population  has  increased,  towns  and  cities  are  every 
where,  railways  and  trolley  roads  and  better  high 
ways  thread  the  country,  and  much  of  New  England 


64  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

will  become  suburban.  The  forests  will  be  fostered, 
and  the  willing  immigrant  will  subdue  again  the 
farms  that  have  not  already  become  the  summer 
homes  of  urban  people.  The  decline  of  New  Eng 
land  is  temporary,  and  the  hardships  and  losses  be 
long  only  to  the  period  of  transition. 

The  center  of  cotton  manufacture  is  shifting  from 
New  England  to  the  South.  In  the  southern  Appala 
chians  and  along  the  streams  that  flow  from  them, 
King  Cotton  will  widen  his  sway  from  the  fields  of 
the  Gulf  plains.  There  is  the  cotton,  the  coal,  the 
water-power,  and  the  iron,  and  short  hauls  bring  the 
one  to  the  other.  New  England  cotton  mills  cannot 
long  meet  such  conditions  as  the  rising  South  affords; 
but  wool  can  take  the  place  of  cotton,  and  the  shoes 
and  brass  and  paper  of  New  England  will  not 
suffer. 

If  fishing  has  lost  its  relative  place,  and  lumbering 
also,  the  stores  of  granite,  marble,  slate,  and  brown- 
stone  are  limitless,  and  the  wealth  of  the  cities  pours 
into  the  mountains  and  along  the  shores,  during  the 
heat  of  summer  and  the  bright  days  of  autumn.  We 
see  the  process  of  final  adjustment  to  geographic 
conditions.  There  is  stress  in  the  changes,  but 
higher  development  and  a  richer  civilization  in  the 
end. 

"  Man  is  what  he  eats ;  "  "  Character  is  a  function 
of  latitude  ;  "  "  History  is  nothing  more  than  an  echo 
of  the  operation  of  geographic  laws ; "  such  are 
some  of  the  sweeping  affirmations  that  have  been 
made  about  man's  relation  to  the  earth.  They  are 
too  strong,  and  sure  to  confuse  rather  than  to  guide. 


SHORE-LINE  AND   HILLTOP  IN   NEW  ENGLAND     65 

That  environment  influences  character  need  not  be 
asserted ;  but  we  cannot  be  sure  in  weighing  this  in 
fluence.  Did  the  lands  about  the  North  Sea  shape 
Teutonic  character  from  time  immemorial?  And 
were  some  of  these  Teutons  transplanted  to  a  similar 
geographic  province  in  the  New  World  only  to  have 
the  type  perfected  ?  But  suppose  the  Puritan  had 
gone  not  to  New  England  but  to  Virginia.  Would 
he  not  as  easily  have  made  the  New  England  type  of 
civilization  in  a  more  genial  climate  and  with  a  more 
generous  soil  ?  Thus  may  physical  features  find 
limits  to  their  efficiency ;  and  none  may  so  wisely 
recognize  this  as  those  who  seek  to  trace  the  lines 
of  physiographic  control.  The  first  New  Englanders 
were  picked  men  ;  the  average  man  did  not  leave  the 
eastern  shires  of  Britain,  but  those  who  would  have 
founded  a  state  anywhere. 

Now  we  may  freely  concede  what  nature  has  done, 
so  far  as  we  can  read  it,  for  New  England  life.  If 
sturdy  men  could  have  been  tempted  to  indolence, 
the  short  summers  and  rough  fields  left  them  no 
opportunity  for  such  indulgence.  Whether  the  cli 
mate  is  more  a  breeder  of  sturdy  constitutions,  or  of 
consumption,  may  be  left  an  unanswered  question ; 
but  none  can  doubt  that  the  geographic  features  of 
this  province  are  pronounced  and  that  they  have 
colored  all  the  life  of  her  people,  and  have  been  in  a 
large  way  the  channel  of  its  expression.  We  have 
seen  how  her  works  and  days,  her  products  and  her 
industries,  have  hinged  upon  her  shore-lines,  her 
streams  and  waterfalls,  her  soils  and  forests.  And 
beyond  this,  the  garb,  at  least,  of  New  England  feel- 


66  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

ing  and  thought,  is  woven  in  the  loom  of  her  fields 
and  skies. 

This  we  can  trace  in  her  literature.  And  yet  we 
do  not  think  that  nature  is  a  mere  cloak,  put  on  and 
off  at  will  by  the  New  England  writers.  The  appre 
ciation  that  we  mean,  whether  found  in  her  prose  or 
verse,  is  essentially  poetic.  The  best  example  of  this 
is  Emerson,  a  prose  poet  everywhere,  and  nowhere 
more  truly  than  in  his  "Nature."  If  deepest  sym 
pathy  with  the  outer  world  be  our  test,  Emerson  is 
the  poet  of  New  England.  In  the  forest  "  is  sanctity 
which  shames  our  religions,  and  reality  which  dis 
credits  our  heroes."  "  The  mind  loves  its  old  home; 
as  water  to  our  thirst,  so  is  the  rock,  the  ground,  to 
our  eyes,  and  hands,  and  feet."  "We  nestle  in 
nature  and  draw  our  living  as  parasites  from  her 
roots  and  grains."  "The  fall  of  snowflakes  in  a  still 
air,  the  blowing  of  sleet  over  a  wide  sheet  of  water, 
the  reflections  of  trees  and  flowers  in  glassy  lakes,  the 
crackling  and  sporting  of  hemlock  in  the  flames, — 
these  are  the  music  and  pictures  of  the  most  ancient 
religion."  These  are  flash-lights  upon  New  England, 
but  her  fields  and  woods  and  storms  are  deep  with 
meaning. 

We  may  leave  to  the  critics  Emerson's  rank  in 
poetry,  pass  his  faults  of  meter,  and  call  him  "a  great 
man  who  wrote  poetry  "  ;  but  this,  at  least,  we  shall 
find,  —  the  transcendentalist  was  not  lifted  off  his  na 
tive  soil,  and  "  the  secret  of  the  land  was  in  the  poet" 
None  can  mistake  the  coming  of  New  England 
spring  in  May-day  or  feel  himself  in  any  other  land 
when  — 


SHORE-LINE  AND   HILLTOP  IN  NEW  ENGLAND     67 

"Announced  by  all  the  trumpets  of  the  sky, 
Arrives  the  snow,  and,  driving  o'er  the  fields, 
Seems  nowhere  to  alight ;  the  whited  air 
Hides  hills  and  woods,  the  river,  and  the  heaven.1' 

A  poet  of  the  prairies  would  scarcely  personify  the 
sea,  thundering  on  its  border :  - 

"  I  drive  my  wedges  home, 
And  carve  the  coastwise  mountain  into  caves,1'  - 

nor  would  he  seek  the  deep  and  rocky  forest :  — 

"  The  watercourses  were  my  guide  ; 
They  led  me  through  the  thicket  damp, 
Through  brake  and  fern,  the  beaver's  camp, 
Through  beds  of  granite  cut  my  road." 

The  physiographer  has  adopted  Monadnock  as  the 
name  of  a  typical  form  of  land  ;  and  here  our  poet 
has  also  found  a  song  :  - 

"  Every  morn  I  lift  my  head, 
See  New  England  underspread 
Anchored  fast  for  many  an  age, 
I  await  the  bard  and  sage." 

Less  intuitional  and  prophetic,  but  more  simple  and 
full  in  his  pictures  of  the  New  England  country,  is 
Whittier.  His  biographer  has  made  him  tell  of  his 
early  suffering  from  the  fierce  winter  cold  ;  and  he  has 
given  us  further  proof  of  the  tardy  and  difficult  fashion 
in  which  the  New  England  fathers  adapted  or  failed 
to  adapt  themselves  to  a  severer  climate,  "  toughening 
themselves  and  their  children  sitting  in  cold  churches, 
and  deeming  flannel  garments  no  necessity." 


68  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

He,  too,  has  immortalized  the  winter  snows,  but  in 
a  tale  of  domestic  life,  and  tells  of  the  uncle  :  — 

"  Himself  to  Nature's  heart  so  near 
That  all  her  voices  in  his  ear 
Of  beast  or  bird  had  meanings  clear.1' 

Whittier,  too,  has  his  :  — 

"  Monadnock  lifting  from  his  night  of  pines 
His  rosy  forehead  to  the  evening  star.11 

He  sees  it  from  Wachusett,  and  here  also  draws  a 
sweet  story  of  human  faithfulness.  He  could  not, 
living  on  its  banks,  fail  to  touch  the  Merrimac  with 
his  fancy.  Other  rivers  he  had  seen,  the  Potomac, 
the  Hudson,  and  — 

"  Have  seen  along  his  valley  gleam 
The  Mohawk's  softly  winding  stream  ; 
Yet  wheresoe'er  his  step  might  be, 
Thy  wandering  child  looked  back  to  thee.11 

To  a  blue  water  in  New  England  belongs  his 
"  Summer  by  the  Lakeside."  Here  is  the  same 
refuge  in  nature  that  we  found  in  Bryant  by  the 
Hudson  ;  and  in  the  closing  lines  we  have  a  double 
picture,  —  the  landscape  and  the  deep  seriousness  of 
the  old  New  England  life. 

Thoreau  was  a  poet  also  in  keen  vision  and  strong- 
lined  reflection  of  his  native  fields  and  woods.  His 
"  Week  on  the  Concord  and  Merrimac  rivers  "  will 
surely  leave  one  remembrance  in  the  reader's  mind,  — 
the  still,  scarcely  flowing  waters  of  the  lesser  stream. 
He  lived  too  soon  and  was  too  little  systematic  to 


SHORE-LINE  AND  HILLTOP  IN   NEW   ENGLAND     69 

know  or  care  that  this  little  stream  belongs  to  a  group 
of  north-flowing  rivers  in  Massachusetts,  or  the  "  still 
rivers  "  of  Connecticut,  which  are  sluggish  because, 
since  their  valleys  were  excavated,  the  lands  have 
tilted  a  little  to  the  south,  impeding  their  flow,  and 
sending  with  a  rush  to  the  sea  their  south-flowing 
neighbors.  But  Thoreau  could  see,  with  eyes  often 
lacking  to  the  geographer,  deep  into  the  mystic  mean 
ing  of  out-of-door  New  England,  and  he  who  would 
know  the  land  should  go  with  him,  "  half  college 
graduate,  half  Algonquin,  the  Robinson  Crusoe  of 
Walden  Pond,"  to  his  hut  in  the  woods,  or  walk  with 
him  down  the  soft  sands  of  Cape  Cod  to  Province- 
town,  or  beneath  the  green  arches  of  the  Maine 
woods. 


CHAPTER    III 

THE    APPALACHIAN    BARRIER 

WE  are  still  to  view  the  stage  on  which  the  scenes 
of  early  American  history  were  enacted.  As  with 
New  England,  we  look  out  upon  it  from  the  sea. 
The  floor  of  the  stage  is  the  Atlantic  lowland.  Be 
hind  it  are  painted  the  crags  and  woodland  slopes  of 
the  Appalachian  IVTotK^ain^.  But  the  foreground  is 
not  the  same  in  the  South  as  in  the  North  :  in  New 
England  it  is  worn  mountain  land,  in  the  South  it  is 
coastal  plain.  The  one  is  a  country  of  hills,  the  other 
a  land  of  smoother  aspect,  flat  or  gently  rolling, 
and  showing  low  platforms  alternating  with  shallow 
stream  valleys.  In  one  the  rocks  are  of  fabulous  age, 
toughened  in  fiber  and  gnarly  in  face.  In  the  other 
they  consist  of  scarcely  cemented  land  waste  spread 
out  in  even  sheets,  often  bearing  marine  shells,  and 
thus  giving  proof  of  their  recent  emergence  out  of 
the  sea.  These  beds  of  sand,  gravel,  marl,  and  clay 
slant  gently  toward  the  sea  border  and  continue  far 
beneath  its  waters,  as  would  appear  if  we  could  re 
move  the  covering  waves  and  dig  valleys  to  reveal 
the  structure.  If  the  eastern  part  of  our  continent 
should  come  up  a  hundred  feet,  there  would  only  be 
more  of  this  flat  country.  And  if  it  should  go  down 
a  hundred  feet,  the  ocean  would  only  be  conquering 
again  a  part  of  its  former  domain.  Such  a  coastal 

70 


THE   APPALACHIAN    BARRIER  71 

plain  is  not  alone  a  feature  of  our  land  but  borders 
parts  of  many  continents.  And  in  central  New  York 
or  Wisconsin  the  geologist  finds  proofs  of  ancient 
coastal  plains,  now  lifted  and  roughened  beyond  rec 
ognition,  except  to  the  initiated. 

In  typical  form  this  lowland  does  not  begin  until 
we  go  south  of  New  York  Harbor  and  enter  New 
Jersey.  Of  that  state  it  makes  the  central  and  south 
ern  parts.  Then  it  includes  all  of  Delaware  and 
most  of  Maryland,  except  where  the  latter  state 
reaches  a  long  and  slender  arm  out  across  the  ridges 
and  valleys  of  the  Appalachians.  And  here  are  all 
the  low-lying  plantations  of  Virginia,  alone  rivaling 
New  England  in  its  harvests  of  colonial  record  and 
tradition.  Going  south,  we  find  it  still,  a  hundred 
miles  or  more  in  width  in  North  Carolina  ;  and  at  this 
distance  from  the  sea  it  has  attained  a  height  of  but 
three  hundred  feet,  or  a  little  more,  above  the  ocean 
level.  The  rivers  are  tidal  far  within  the  shore-line,  and 
merge  into  sounds,  as  Albemarle  and  Pamlico.  Out 
side  of  the  sounds  are  long  barrier  beaches,  theaters 
of  wave  and  wind,  protecting  the  waters  within,  and 
opening  here  and  there  for  communication  with  the 
outer  seas.  So  flat  are  parts  of  the  coastal  plain  that 
"  the  Wilmington  and  Weldon  Railroad  has  a  stretch 
of  40  miles,  where  there  is  neither  curve,  excavation, 
nor  embankment." 

South  Carolina  tells  the  same  story,  only  the  coastal 
plain  is  wider,  about  150  miles.  So  low  and  flat  is 
this  region  that  swamps  abound,  especially  along  the 
streams  and  shore-line.  The  alligators  are  at  home 
in  the  rivers,  and  the  names  of  the  forest  trees  have 


72  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

a.  tropical  sound.  The  old  story  of  tidal  rivers  is 
told  again,  and  the  towns  —  Charleston,  Port  Royal, 
Beaufort  —  remind  one  in  this  respect,  at  least,  of 
New  London,  New  York,  or  Philadelphia. 
^  The  mountains  do  not  rise  at  once  from  the  plain. 
Lying  between,  in  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  the  Caro- 
linas,  is  a  belt  of  hilly  country,  a  little  more  than  plain 
in  some  parts  and  a  little  less  than  mountain  in  others. 
In  North  Carolina  this  strip  is  two  hundred  miles  wide, 
and  begins  to  rise  abruptly  from  the  coastal  plain  on 
the  east.  Falls,  or  swift  reaches,  amounting  to  two 
hundred  feet  of  descent,  mark  the  eastward  passages 
of  the  streams  across  this  boundary,  which  physiog 
raphers  have  long  called  the  Fall  Line.  The  line 
runs  southward  into  Georgia  and  northward  to  the 
Delaware.  Up  to  this  limit  on  the  east,  the  rivers 
are  sluggish,  if  not  tidal.  Down  to  this  limit  on  the 
west,  they  are  swift  of  flow.  The  hilly  belt  has  also 
its  physiographic  name,  —  it  is  the  Piedmont  region, 
lying  at  the  foot  of  the  Blue  Ridge.  It  is  well-worn 
mountain  land  and  is  much  like  southeastern  New 
England.  If  we  could  lift  the  New  England  region 
and  expose  her  sea  bottom  it  would  be  like  the  South 
Atlantic  country ;  it  would  have  a  coastal  plain,  a  Pied 
mont  region,  and  its  mountain  ranges. 

"Tide-water"  Virginia  and  Maryland  lie  between 
the  Fall  Line  and  the  sea.  Within  this  region  is 
the  Chesapeake  with  its  tributary  waters.  As  in 
Maine,  or  on  the  Narragansett,  or  the  Hudson,  we 
are  dealing  now  with  a  "drowned"  river  system. 
Perhaps  the  Chesapeake  is  the  finest  example,  and 
on  any  map  it  looks  like  a  swollen  river  with  over- 


74         GEOGRAPHIC  INFLUENCES 

widened  branches.  Raise  the  land,  and  see  how  the 
salt  waters  would  retire,  and  how  the  Potomac,  York, 
and  James  would  join  the  lengthened  Susquehanna 
and  enter  the  Atlantic  somewhere  to  the  east  of  Nor 
folk.  But  things  were  as  they  are  long  before  the 
memory  of  man ;  and  when  the  early  navigators  en 
tered  the  gateway  of  Cape  Charles  and  Cape  Henry, 
a  wilderness  of  quiet  waters  was  before  them,  and 
they  could  make  long  voyages  within  sight  of  green 
shores,  and  for  hundreds  of  miles  thread  narrow,  tidal 
inlets  shadowed  by  the  overhanging  forests.  Captain 
John  Smith  gave  the  summer  of  1608  to  such  voy 
ages  of  exploration,  going  up  the  bay  and  enter 
ing  the  Susquehanna,  Patapsco,  and  Potomac  rivers. 
"  Chesapeake  Bay  is  a  bay  in  most  respects  scarce 
to  be  outdone  by  the  universe,  having  so  many  large 
and  spacious  rivers,  spreading  themselves  to  immeas 
urable  creeks  and  coves,  admirably  carved  out  and 
contrived  by  the  omnipotent  hand  of  our  wise  Creator, 
for  the  advantage  and  conveniency  of  its  inhabit 
ants."  Good  as  this  is,  Fiske,  who  quotes  the  above 
from  an  old  writer,  has  drawn  a  picture  in  yet  stronger 
lines.  "  The  country  known  as  '  tidewater  Virginia  ' 
is  a  kind  of  sylvan  Venice.  Into  the  depths  of  the 
shaggy  woodland,  for  many  miles  on  either  side  of 
the  great  bay,  the  salt  tide  ebbs  and  flows.  One  can 
go  surprisingly  far  inland  on  seafaring  craft,  while 
with  a  boat  there  are  but  few  plantations  on  the  old 
York  peninsula  to  which  one  cannot  approach  very 
near."  So  easy  and  convenient  were  these  ready- 
made  highways  as  to  retard  the  making  of  roadways 
across  the  lands  and  through  the  woods. 


THE    APPALACHIAN    BARRIER  75 

No  single  influence  molded  the  life  of  the  colony 
of  Virginia.  The  beginnings  in  a  wilderness  are 
never  easy.  But  this  was  no  such  land  to  struggle 
with  as  the  Puritan  found.  Its  climate  was  genial,  L 
its  virgin  soils  were  rich,  and  the  battle  with  the  - 
winter's  cold  did  not  consume  the  energies  that  were 
sorely  needed  in  other  ways.  If  there  had  been  no 
other  differences,  tobacco  was  enough.  The  world  < 
was  calling  for  the  new-found  weed.  The  soils  were 
suited  to  it.  It  was  good  currency  when  there  was 
little  other,  and  it  was  raised  in  fields  that  were 
washed  by  navigable  waters.  Direct  to  many  planta 
tions  came  the  ships  that  loaded  it  for  London.  Or, 
if  not,  it  was  small  trouble  to  raft  it  down  the  more 
shallow  inlets  to  wharves  that  ocean-going  sails  could 
reach. 

Plantations  developed  rather  than  towns.  The 
prevalence  of  tobacco,  the  introduction  of  slave  labor, 
the  absence  of  land  roads,  and  the  facility  of  the 
waterways,  —  all  favored  the  scattered,  rural  life.  But 
no  more  here  than  in  New  England  are  geographic 
causes  all ;  for  the  Cavalier,  and  not  the  Puritan, 
came  to  Virginia.  The  one  was  proud,  given  to 
amusement,  an  aristocrat,  building  a  mansion,  and 
surrounding  himself  with  a  landed  estate  like  those 
of  his  native  England.  The  other  worked  with  his 
hands,  had  Yankee  curiosity  and  invention,  was 
frugal,  and  lived  with  his  fellows  in  towns  or  on 
small  neighborly  farms.  Each  could  understand  the 
other's  defects  better  than  he  could  his  points  of  ex 
cellence  ;  and  these  two  unlike  men  came  into  singu 
larly  contrasting  environments  to  found  a  home  across 


76  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

the  seas.  Where  the  two  lived  were  the  two  foci  of 
colonial  history,  and  the  causes  of  the  unfolding 
might  baffle  a  complete  analysis,  either  by  the  geog 
rapher  or  the  historian. 

Such  is  a  glimpse  of  the  tide-water  country,  the 
coastal  plain.  We  must  have  such  a  view  that  we 
may  know  the  meaning  of  the  barrier  that  looms  be 
hind.  Not  all  the  lowland  life  is  rural,  though  coun 
try  is  more  than  city  as  one  goes  farther  south.  But 
at  the  inner  edge  of  the  coastal  plain,  at  the  head 
of  navigation,  close  by  water-power,  at  the  Fall  Line, 
—  here  cities  could  but  grow.  Here,  then,  is  the  sea 
board  rival  of  New  York,  seated  by  the  estuary  of 
the  Delaware.  And  here  is  the  fourth  of  the  great 
Atlantic  quartette  of  cities,  on  the  Chesapeake.  And 
then  come  Washington,  below  the  falls  of  the  Poto 
mac,  Fredericksburg,  Richmond,  and  Petersburg  in 
Virginia,  and  Raleigh,  Camden,  and  Columbia  in  the 
Carolinas.  Narrow  lowlands  everywhere,  and  cities 
grown  up  by  the  side  of  short,  tidal  rivers,  —  such  is 
the  Atlantic  border  of  the  United  States. 

The  barrier  itself  is  not  a  single  elevation,  nor  is  it 
a  disorderly  group  of  heights,  but  has,  as  all  moun 
tain  systems  have,  a  plan  that  can  be  analyzed.  It  is 
indeed  a  mountain  system.  The  shortest  description 
of  it  is  that  it  consists  of  parallel  ridges  and  valleys 
which,  as  a  group,  but  not  as  individuals,  reach  from 
eastern  New  York  into  Alabama.  As  in  New  Eng 
land,  so  here,  the  downwear  has  been  great.  The 
ridges  are  not  in  relief  because  they  have  been  ele 
vated  relatively  to  the  valley  bottoms,  but  because  the 
valleys  have  been  dug  between  them. 


THE    APPALACHIAN    BARRIER  77 

These  very  general  statements  will  be  clear  if  we 
look  more  specially  at  the  barrier  in  three  regions,  — 
first  in  Pennsylvania,  then  in  Virginia,  and  finally  in 
North  Carolina  and  Tennessee.  We  will  note  the 
elements  in  a  profile  of  the  country  seen  by  one  who 
goes  from  Philadelphia  to  Erie  or  Pittsburg.  We 
go  across  the  lowlands  to  Harrisburg.  Here  we  are 
in  a  broad  and  fertile  valley  which  runs  far  to 
northeast  and  to  southwest.  In  New  York  it  is 
the  Wallkill  Valley.  In  Pennsylvania,  Easton,  Beth 
lehem,  Allentown,  Reading,  Lebanon,  Harrisburg, 
Carlisle,  and  Chambersburg  lie  in  it.  Toward  the 
Maryland  line  it  is  called  the  Cumberland  Valley. 
In  Maryland,  Hagerstown  is  in  it,  and  in  Virginia  it 
is  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  It  is  not  the  trench  of  a 
master  river ;  for  the  rivers  commonly  flow  across 
and  not  through  it.  It  is  often  a  dozen  miles  or  more 
wide.  It  is  due  to  the  etching  out  of  softer  shales 
and  limestones,  leaving  harder  masses  on  either  hand 
as  mountains.  Because  the  rocks  are  shales  and 
limestones,  the  soils  are  rich,  the  farms  are  produc 
tive,  towns  are  many,  and  railways  cross  and  thread 
the  valley  everywhere.  Physiographers  know  it  as 
the  Appalachian  Valley. 

To  call  it  a  valley  will  not  puzzle  the  traveler  who 
looks  north  from  Allentown  or  Harrisburg.  The  even 
crest  of  Blue  Mountain  follows  the  horizon  as  far  as 
he  can  see,  ranging  from  twelve  hundred  to  nearly  two 
thousand  feet  above  the  ocean.  On  the  southeast  the 
mountain  range  that  should  bound  the  valley  is  in 
places  worn  away,  but  it  appears  in  South  Mountain, 
east  of  Chambersburg.  It  is  worth  our  while  to  remem- 


78  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

her  this  name,  for  this  modest  elevation  grows  and  rises 
southward  until  it  becomes  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  at 
last  includes  the  strong  and  lofty  mountain  masses  of 
the  Carolinas.  To  the  northeast  it  reappears  again 
also,  and  becomes  the  Highlands  of  New  Jersey,  and 
the  Highland  Range  of  New  York,  cut  by  the  Hud 
son.  If  even  this  were  all,  we  should  not  have  a 
barrier  of  historic  importance.  But,  returning  now  to 
Pennsylvania,  beyond  the  Blue  Mountain  are  other 
ridges  like  itself,  following  it  in  long  parallel  walls, 
and  separated  from  each  other  by  longitudinal  valleys. 
As  a  rule,  the  small  streams  run  along  these  valleys  and 
enter  at  right  angles  larger  rivers  which  cut  boldly 
across  or  through  the  mountains.  Such  are  the  Dela 
ware,  Lehigh,  Schuylkill,  and  Susquehanna.  Some 
times  a  large  stream  runs  between  ridges,  as  the  east 
branch  of  the  Susquehanna  from  Scranton  to  Nor 
thumberland,  or  the  west  branch  past  Williamsport. 
Such  an  arrangement  of  streams  gives  a  rectangular 
or  trellised  pattern  to  the  drainage.  How  it  comes  to 
be  so  is  too  long  a  story  to  be  told  here. 

The  Susquehanna  crosses  all  the  ridges.  Why, 
then,  is  not  its  valley  as  good  a  doorway  to  the  in 
terior  as  the  Hudson  offers  ?  Because  the  river  is 
shallow,  and  beyond  the  mountains  its  head  waters 
fringe  out  and  are  lost  in  the  heights  of  the  Alleghany 
plateau.  To  this  we  must  turn  to  try  to  correct  a 
most  persistent  misunderstanding  about  the  land 
forms  of  Pennsylvania.  Here  are  meant  the  unnum 
bered  references  to  the  "  Alleghany  Mountains,"  as 
though  there  was,  in  Pennsylvania,  a  range  of  that 
name,  rugged,  and  thousands  of  feet  in  height. 


80  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

From  near  Williamsport,  far  to  the  southwest,  runs 
the  Bald  Eagle  Valley.  It  is  narrow  and  slightly 
curved  to  the  southeast.  On  this  southeast  side  it 
is  flanked  by  a  mountain  ridge.  The  rocks  are  dis 
turbed  and  tilted,  and  it  is  in  all  respects  like  the 
other  ridges  of  the  region.  On  the  northwest  rises 
a  wall  of  equal  height,  about  one  thousand  feet  from 
the  bed  of  the  stream,  but  the  rocks  in  it  are  not 
disturbed  ;  they  are  piled  one  on  the  other  in  hori 
zontal  beds.  This  great  wall,  or  escarpment,  is  made 
rugged  by  weathering  and  gashed  by  ravines.  Fol 
low  up  one  of  these  and  we  come,  not  upon  a  moun 
tain  crest,  but  upon  the  eastern  edge  of  the  plateau 
which  makes  western  Pennsylvania  a  surface  about 
two  thousand  feet  above  sea,  only  lower  in  its  valleys 
and  where,  at  the  northwest,  it  slopes  down  to  Lake 
Erie.  The  "  Alleghany  Mountains  "  are  nothing  but 
this  rough  and  steep  wall  that  faces  the  southeast, 
and  it  seemed  like  another  mountain  range  to  those 
that  came  to  it  from  the  seaboard.  If  we  follow  the 
Alleghany  escarpment  northeast,  it  becomes  obscure 
in  that  part  of  Pennsylvania,  but  reappears  in  New 
York,  where  it  is  known  as  the  Catskills.  Neither 
Catskill  nor  Alleghany,  therefore,  is  the  name  of 
real  mountains,  but  both,  of  the  edge  of  a  plateau, 
and  the  drainage,  not  being  controlled  by  upturned 
beds  of  rock,  is  arranged  like  the  branches  of  a  tree. 
If  we  follow  the  Alleghany  front  southeast,  we  shall 
find  it  in  West  Virginia,  Virginia,  and  Tennessee  ;  and 
here  again  this  long  wall,  facing  southeast,  has  long 
been  called  the  Cumberland  Mountains,  but  ought  to 
be  called,  and  is  becoming  known  as,  the  Cumberland 


THE   APPALACHIAN    BARRIER  8 1 

escarpment.  If  the  reader  will  remember  that  this 
wall,  whether  it  be  steep  slope  or  sheer  cliff,  extends 
from  the  Hudson  River  into  Alabama  ;  that  the  rocks 
are  horizontal  and  form  a  plateau  back  of  it,  while  all 
the  proper  mountains  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard  are 
southeast  of  it,  —  he  will  have  a  key  to  the  form  and 
structure  of  the  Appalachian  region. 

Returning  for  a  moment  to  Pennsylvania,  the  bar 
rier  embraces  South  Mountain,  the  ridges  from  Blue 
Mountain  to  Bald  Eagle  Valley,  the  Alleghany  es 
carpment,  and  the  uplands  of  western  Pennsylvania. 
The  meaning  of  it  will  be  somewhat  appreciated  if 
the  path  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  be  carefully 
traced  from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburg. 

Let  us  place  ourselves  at  Harpers  Ferry  in  Virginia. 
A  river  flows  by  us  to  the  southeast.  It  is  north  of 
the  town  and  is  the  Potomac.  Barely  east  of  the  vil 
lage  it  passes  through  a  gorge,  and  in  two  miles  comes 
out  upon  lowlands  again.  It  has  passed  the  Blue 
Ridge,  whose  severed  heights  rise  in  strong  slopes 
nearly  a  thousand  feet  on  either  hand.  Harpers 
Ferry  is  barely  within  the  Blue  Ridge  on  the  west. 
From  the  southwest  another  river  flows  along  the 
western  base  of  the  Blue  Ridge  and  joins  the  Poto 
mac  at  the  east  end  of  the  town,  which  lies  in  the 
fork.  It  is  the  Shenandoah,  and  this  is  the  Shenan- 
doah  Valley.  To  the  north  and  east  we  should  cross 
Maryland  and  come  up  to  Harrisburg.  To  the  south 
west  we  should  follow  a  broad  and  rich  vale  to  the 
head  waters  of  the  Shenandoah  beyond  Staunton.  It 
is  a  part  again  of  the  Appalachian  Valley.  As  in 
Pennsylvania,  it  has  towns,  railroads,  and  fertile  fields, 


82  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

and  the  Potomac,  like  the  Susquehanna,  crosses  it. 
Like  the  Susquehanna,  too,  it  gathers  its  waters  in 
longitudinal  streams  among  the  mountain  ridges,  and, 
turning,  crosses  them  and  the  Shenandoah  Valley 
to  the  southeast.  Unlike  the  Susquehanna,  however, 
the  Potomac  does  not  gather  tribute  from  far  over 
the  plateau,  for  there  the  Monongahela  holds  sway. 


FIG.  15.     Characteristic  Forested  Slopes  invthe  Southern  Appalachians. 
Linville  Gorge. 

The  great  barrier,  then,  in  Virginia,  is  the  Blue 
Ridge,  the  Appalachian  ridges,  the  Alleghany  es 
carpment,  and  the  plateau,  and  we  may  appreciate  it 
by  tracing  again  the  line  of  a  railway,  the  Baltimore 
and  Ohio,  which,  like  the  Pennsylvania,  starts  on  a 
tidal  bay,  crosses  the  Atlantic  lowlands,  the  several 
parts  of  the  Appalachian  barrier,  and  comes  down 
into  the  Ohio  Valley. 

Let  us  place  ourselves  at  Knoxville  in  Tennessee. 


THE   APPALACHIAN    BARRIER  83 

A  few  miles  to  the  southeast  bold  mountains  rise 
and  lie  well  over  into  North  Carolina.  It  is  a  rudely 
triangular  tangle  of  ridges,  peaks,  and  high,  inter- 
montane  valleys.  More  peaks  than  can  be  counted 
on  the  fingers  of  a  hand  rise  above  six  thousand  feet, 
and  Mount  Mitchell  passes  that  limit  by  more  than 
seven  hundred  feet.  It  is  more  than  four  hundred 
feet  loftier  than  Mount  Washington,  and  is  the  high 
est  point  of  the  United  States  east  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  These  heights  are  built  of  the  ancient 
crystalline  rocks  and  are  the  southern  continuation 
of  the  Blue  Ridge.  But  the  ridge  so  easily  passed 
by  the  Potomac  River  has  become  a  geographical 
province,  broad  and  high.  Locally  the  name  Blue 
Ridge  is  used  of  the  eastern  range  of  the  group,  and 
the  western  range  is  the  Unakas,  and  here  are  the 
loftiest  peaks.  But  both  together  and  all  between 
connect  through  Virginia  with  the  old  New  York 
Highlands.  Atmospheric  effects  tell  their  story 
here,  for  in  the  distance  the  ridge  is  "Blue,"  and  in 
poem  and  story,  as  in  the  common  speech,  the  Una 
kas  become  the  Great  Smoky  Mountains. 

But  not  forgetting  that  we  are  at  Knoxville,  we 
travel  to  the  northwest  a  few  miles,  and  we  are  at  the 
foot  of  the  Cumberland  escarpment.  We  may  climb 
it  and  wander  across  the  upland  and  come  down  to 
Nashville  or  into  Kentucky.  If  we  follow  the  foot 
of  the  wall  north  to  the  Tennessee-Kentucky  line,  we 
can  ascend  to  the  uplands  through  the  historic  Cum 
berland  Gap. 

Up  and  down  the  great  valley  past  Knoxville 
extend  the  Appalachian  ridges,  but  they  are  not  so 


84  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

high  or  persistent  as  in  Pennsylvania.  Going  be 
tween  some  of  these  ridges  to  the  north,  we  may 
follow  the  Holston  or  Clinch  rivers  to  their  head 
waters  in  Virginia.  To  the  southwest  we  go  down 
the  Tennessee.  At  Chattanooga  the  river  leaves  the 
valley  and  winds  through  a  trench  in  the  plateau, 
later  to  make  its  curious  swing  to  the  north  and  to 
the  Ohio.  But  if  we  pass  Chattanooga  and  Lookout 
Mountain  on  our  right,  we  shall  be  still  in  a  broad 
valley,  whose  walls  begin  to  fade,  and  we  come  upon 
the  waters  of  the  Coosa,  which  would  take  us  south 
ward  to  the  Gulf. 

The  Clinch  and  Holston  do  not  alone  contribute  to 
the  trunk  river.  These  follow  longitudinal  valleys ; 
but  from  the  southeast,  out  of  the  mountains,  come 
most  of  the  waters  of  Hiwassee,  Little  Tennessee, 
and  the  French  Broad.  And  these  streams  reach 
across  the  higher  Unakas  far  to  the  east,  and  bring 
the  waters  from  the  Blue  Ridge  as  well.  Taking  the 
Tennessee  system,  therefore,  even  with  the  important 
longitudinal  flow  above  and  below  Knoxville,  its  gen 
eral  flow  is  westward,  like  the  Kanawha  farther  north. 
The  southern  Appalachians  have  westward  drainage. 
The  northern  Appalachians  drain  eastward. 

In  the  South  the  barrier  consists  of  crystalline 
mountains,  ancient  and  massive,  a  series  of  ridges 
alternating  with  valleys,  an  escarpment,  and  a  pla 
teau.  Comparing  the  north,  middle,  and  south  parts, 
the  general  profile  is  the  same,  but  there  are  many 
differences.  The  Blue  Ridge  is  worn  out  opposite 
Harrisburg,  it  is  conspicuous  at  Harpers  Ferry,  it  is 
high  and  wide  in  the  south.  The  younger  but  yet 


FIG.  1 6.    Spruce  Forest  near  the  Summit  of  White  Top  Mountain, 
Virginia.     Photograph  by  U.S.  Bureau  of  P\>restry. 


86  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

ancient  ridges  between  the  Blue  Ridge  and  the  pla 
teau  are  high  and  persistent  in  Pennsylvania  and 
Virginia,  but  weaken  at  Knoxville  and  disappear 
southward.  It  may  yet  be  added  that  the  long,  wide 
belt  of  ridge  and  valley  land  between  the  Blue 
Ridge  and  the  Alleghany-Cumberland  escarpment 
is  known  to  physiographers  as  the  "  Greater  Appala 
chian  Valley." 

We  have  dwelt  upon  the  physiographic  aspects 
of  the  Appalachian  region  because  they  are  usually 
left  by  historical  writers  to  the  reader's  imagination. 
Those  writers,  unfortunately,  do  not  all  have  Park- 
man's  appreciation  of  geographic  setting  or  the  artis 
tic  skill  with  which  he  makes  pictures  of  the  land  rise 
in  perspective  and  color  out  of  his  pages. 

This  great  rampart  of  the  East  does  not  seem  diffi 
cult  now,  when  the  forests  have  been  so  largely  cut 
away,  when  engineers  have  found  reasonable  grades 
for  steam  passage,  and  when  electricity  bids  defiance 
to  grades  of  every  degree.  But  the  greatest  influence 
of  the  barrier  goes  back  to  the  time  when  the  forest 
was  everywhere,  when  the  wilderness  was  nearly  un 
known,  and  when  even  a  country  highway  belonged  to 
the  future.  The  explorer,  finding  a  gap,  might  encoun 
ter  another  mountain  in  front  of  him,  for  the  ridges 
often  "  break  joints,"  like  bricks  in  a  wall.  And  if  he 
hit  on  the  Susquehanna  or  the  Potomac,  it  would  lead 
him  to  the  mazy  wilderness  of  the  Alleghany  plateau. 
In  addition  to  the  physical  difficulties  of  entering  the 
mountain  belt  from  the  Atlantic  plain,  the  pioneer 
must  be  ready  for  the  prowling  savage  and  count  on 
the  hostility  of  the  French  garrisons  as  he  neared 


THE   APPALACHIAN    BARRIER  87 

the  Ohio  River.  Only  the  adventurer,  or  the  man 
with  a  serious  public  errand,  would  be  likely  to  leave 
the  fertile  fields  of  Penn's  country,  or  the  tidal  low 
lands  of  the  Chesapeake,  for  the  hard  trails  and 
doubtful  goals  of  the  Appalachian  wilderness.  It 
has  required  more  than  two  centuries  to  clear  the 
forests,  lay  the  roads,  and  open  the  regions  fully 
to  civilized  man.  Even  down  to  1880,  there  was  a 
stretch  of  350  miles,  from  the  Roanoke  southward, 
that  had  never  been  crossed  by  a  railway. 
flf,  without  a  mountain  barrier,  the  Atlantic  plains 
had  merged  into  a  land  like  the  prairies,  it  would  be 
hard  to  say  how  American  history  would  have  shaped 
itself.  If  the  fierce  aborigines  of  the  Southwest  and 
the  Northwest  had  been  in  the  same  relative  positions, 
the  new  colonies  would  have  been  for  them  a  more 
easy  prey.  And  the  colonists  would  have  scattered, 
seeking  the  best  lands,  tending  to  individual  rather 
than  community  life.  This,  in  a  medley  population 
drawn  from  all  the  nations  of  Northwestern  Europe, 
would  have  kept  civilization  back,  and  deferred  the 
founding  of  coherent  states.  But  the  new  Americans 
were  pressed  between  the  sea  and  the  base  of  the 
mountains,  forced  to  be  neighborly,  to  assimilate  each 
other's  ideas,  provide  for  common  defense,  and  build 
up  common  institutions^  Kept  on  the  sea  border, 
the  centers  of  life  were  maritime,  and  there  was,  for 
those  old  days  of  slow-going  ships,  active  interchange 
of  ideas  and  products  between  the  Old  World  and 
the  New.  The  education  of  the  mountains  and  forest 
came  later.  Now  the  people  were  held  somewhat  to 
their  ancestral  tutor,  —  the  wide  sea. 


88  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

If  the  unity  thus  enforced  was  useful,  so  also  was 
the  diversity  fostered  by  physical  conditions.  The 
Atlantic  strip  of  colonial  land  was  cold-temperate 
at  the  north  and  subtropical  at  the  south.  Boston 
and  Charleston  could  not  be  the  same.  And  almost 
every  colony  had  a  natural  home  differentiating  it 
from  the  rest.  Massachusetts  Bay,  Narragansett, 
Hudson,  Delaware,  Chesapeake,  —  these  need  no 
comment.  With  Roundhead,  Dutchman,  Quaker, 
Romanist,  and  Cavalier,  other  diversities  came  in, 
and  came  in  so  strongly  that  final  unity  for  the  colo 
nies  was  by  no  means  to  be  taken  for  granted.  There 
was  portentous  uncertainty  as  to  how  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania  would  go  in  the  Revolution.  But  the 
barrier  held  the  colonies  together  in  the  first  flush 
of  individualism,  when,  escaping  one  yoke,  they  were 
unduly  afraid  of  putting  their  heads  into  another. 
It  has  been  said  that  even  in  1700,  barely  three- 
fourths  of  a  century  after  American  ground  began 
to  be  occupied  in  New  England  and  Virginia,  one 
could  go  from  Portland  to  the  Potomac  and  sleep 
every  night  in  a  "considerable  village."  The  people 
had  to  live  close  enough  to  each  other  to  insure 
organic  life  for  each  of  the  colonies,  and  in  the  end, 
for  all,  moving  surely  on  to  what  Fiske  calls  a  "  con 
tinental  state  of  things." 

No  English  settlements  had  been  made  beyond 
the  central  and  southern  Appalachians  at  the  begin 
ning  of  the  Revolution.  A  century  and  a  half  had 
been  spent  in  building  the  states  by  the  Atlantic. 
Thirty  years  later  the  president  of  the  Republic 
would  send  Lewis  and  Clark  to  the  mouth1  of  the 


THE   APPALACHIAN    BARRIER  89 

Columbia  River.  Within  eighty  years  a  half-dozen 
railway  surveys  would  be  run  from  the  Mississippi 
River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  In  a  century  and  a 
quarter  great  cities  would  stand  by  the  Golden  Gate 
and  by  the  bays  of  the  Northwest.  The  public  men 
of  the  colonies  did  not  much  appreciate  the  country 
beyond  the  mountains.  But  we  need  not  wonder, 
for  it  was  to  them  unknown.  They  had,  indeed, 
heard  of  the  Lakes  and  the  French  forts,  and  may 
have  served  in  frontier  wars,  but  they  never  dreamed 
that  the  destinies  of  the  nation  were  there.  There 
were  exceptional  men  who  saw  more  than  others. 
Such  was  Spotswood  of  Virginia,  who,  in  1716, 
crossed  the  Blue  Ridge  in  central  Virginia,  and  thus 
wrote,  "  We  should  attempt  to  make  some  settle 
ments  on  ye  lakes,  and  at  the  same  time  possess  our 
selves  of  those  passes  of  the  great  mountains,  which 
are  necessary  to  preserve  a  communication  with  such 
settlements." 

This  was  the  call  of  a  clear  trumpet,  but  no  one 
was  aroused  by  it.  The  Virginia  colonists  had  too 
much  to  do  and  to  be  interested  in  nearer  home,  and 
two  generations  were  to  pass  before  there  would  be 
a  nation.  It  was  not  the  fault  of  the  colonists  that 
when  they  awoke  to  it  they  did  not  find  another 
great  nation  across  the  mountains.  Great  movements 
work  out  in  the  silent  chemistry  of  events.  Neither 
individuals  nor  peoples  plan  their  greatest  deeds. 
This  has  nowhere  been  more  true  than  in  "  the  win 
ning  of  the  West." 

How  the  Appalachian  barrier  was  crossed,  we  must 
now  inquire.  Most  physiographers  think  that  an 


90         GEOGRAPHIC  INFLUENCES 

ancient  river  system  had  its  head  waters  in  West 
Virginia,  its  middle  course  in  Pennsylvania,  and  dis 
charged  into  a  great  valley,  where  Lake  Erie  now 
lies.  By  the  strange  changes  of  the  ice  invasion, 
the  system  was  so  broken  up  and  rearranged  that 
two  broad  streams,  the  Allegheny  from  the  north, 
and  the  Monongahela  from  the  south,  coming  together 
at  a  sharp  angle,  form  the  Ohio,  and  carry  many 
waters  of  West  Virginia  and  southwestern  New 
York  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Covering  the  narrow 
point  between  the  rivers,  and  stretching  along  their 
banks  and  eastward  over  the  uplands,  is  Pittsburg, 
the  "Gateway  of  the  West."  Washington  had 
prophetic  visions  of  the  meaning  of  this  place,  but 
the  French  were  too  strong.  Fort  Duquesne,  Brad- 
dock,  Fort  Pitt,  —  these  are  the  early  chapters.  A 
permanent  settlement  was  made  in  1773,  and  the 
tides  of  life  began  to  flow.  A  million  people  now 
belong  to  the  city  and  its  environs.  No  more  power 
ful  geographic  causes  can  be  found  in  any  land 
than  group  themselves  here,  —  navigation  on  three 
rivers,  valleys  inviting  railways,  and  mineral  products 
close  at  hand,  making  this  the  North  American 
metropolis  of  petroleum,  of  natural  gas,  of  bituminous 
coal,  and  of  iron. 

But  we  wish  most  to  see  how  the  overflow  from 
the  East  centered  upon  Pittsburg  and  passed  down 
the  Ohio  River.  From  the  head  of  the  Delaware 
and  Chesapeake  bays  paths  were  sought  between 
the  Potomac  and  the  upper  waters  of  the  Susque- 
hanna,  or  in  the  belt  of  country  now  lying  between 
the  Pennsylvania  and  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Rail- 


92  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

ways.  Such  paths  must  lead  across  the  Hagerstown- 
Harrisburg  Valley,  across  the  Appalachian  ridges, 
and  over  the  plateau  east  of  the  Monongahela  River. 
But  there  is  no  natural  highway.  The  Mohawk 
route  was  a  steady  menace  to  the  trade  of  Philadel 
phia  during  the  early  decades  of  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury.  An  Albany  firm,  as  told  by  McMaster,  owned 
a  Hudson  River  line  of  packets,  and  offered  to  carry 
freight  from  New  York  to  Pittsburg  for  six  dollars  a 
ton,  while  wagon  lines  from  Philadelphia,  with  tire 
some  efforts,  could  scarcely  meet  the  price.  To  go 
around  and  come  down  the  Allegheny  River,  or  up 
the  streams  from  Lake  Erie,  was  easier  than  to  come 
over  the  barrier.  The  New  Yorkers,  at  the  same 
time,  insured  the  goods  and  gave  easier  terms  of 
payment.  Thus  they  held  the  advantage  and  looked 
forward  to  even  better  days,  for  the  Erie  Canal  was 
under  way. 

The  men  of  Philadelphia  in  those  days  thought 
that  they  held  the  geographic  key  to  the  inland 
trade.  By  one  scheme  they  would  go  on  rivers,  lakes, 
and  short  canals,  by  Elmira  and  Seneca  Lake,  to 
Lake  Ontario.  Or  they  were  going  by  the  Susque- 
hanna  to  the  Allegheny,  the  Conewango,  and  Lake 
Erie,  or  by  the  Juniata  to  the  Allegheny  and  the 
Ohio.  But  why  wonder  that  they  saw  visions  of 
fleets  on  shallow  rivers  and  obscure  creeks,  when 
Washington  himself  had  visited,  years  before,  the 
Oneida  carrying-place,  and  had  considered  the  pass 
from  Otsego  Lake  to  the  Mohawk,  and  had  grown 
eloquent  upon  the  navigable  waters  of  central  New 
York, 


94  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

While  New  York  and  Philadelphia  strove,  danger 
for  both  loomed  in  the  far  Southwest.  Would  not 
the  farmers  and  traders  of  the  new  West  send  their 
goods  to  New  Orleans  ?  What  was  to  prevent  the 
Southern  town,  lying  between  the  prairies  and  the  sea, 
from  winning  in  the  race  ?  Sugar  and  cotton  had 
already  come  to  the  seaboard  by  way  of  Pittsburg. 
Thus  the  call  grew  loud  for  roads  and  canals  across 
the  mountains ;  and  the  statesmen  joined  in,  for  they 
said,  we  cannot  form  into  a  compact  nation  lands 
that  are  divorced  in  trade  and  have  scant  intercourse 
with  each  other.  "  State  after  state  heard  the  cry, 
and  an  era  of  internal  improvements  opened,  which 
did  far  more  to  cement  the  Union  and  join  the  East 
and  West  inseparably  than  did  the  Constitution  and 
the  laws."  l 

That  the  old  roadways  from  Philadelphia  and  the 
Chesapeake  country  to  the  Ohio  River  were  so  vari 
ous  shows  that  nature  offered  no  commanding  route. 
There  was  a  northern  highway,  if  we  may  so  dignify 
it,  leading  from  Philadelphia  almost  directly  westward. 
It  ran  at  no  great  distance  from  the  future  field  of 
Gettysburg,  crossed  the  Appalachian  Valley  at  Ship- 
penburg,  passed  out  of  the  mountain  belt  beyond 
Bedford,  and,  bearing  more  to  the  north,  led  down 
into  the  muddy  hamlet  of  Pittsburg ;  but  in  the  years 
following  the  Revolution  it  guided  multitudes  to  the 
west.  The  other  routes  were  farther  south,  and  led 
along  the  Potomac  in  western  Maryland,  then  up  into 
Pennsylvania  to  the  Youghiogheny,  and  down  by  this 
river  and  the  Monongahela  to  Pittsburg.  .Such  were 

1  McMaster,  "  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,"  IV,  397. 


96  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

Washington's  road  and  Braddock's  road,  which  often 
followed  a  still  older  Indian  trail.  Washington,  too, 
was  watching  New  Orleans,  and  was  anxious  to  tap 
the  Ohio  Valley  for  the  Potomac  and  the  James.  For 
this  a  road  across  the  mountains  was  needed,  a  true 
highway,  and  not  the  difficult  path  which  he  himself 
had  so  often  trod.  Not  long  after  his  death  the  na 
tional  government  undertook  the  building  of  the  Cum 
berland  Road.  We  have  described  its  general  course, 
and  often  it  was  identical  with  the  roads  that  Washing 
ton  had  known.  It  was  opened  in  1818  ;  and  in  a  few 
years  more  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal  was  fin 
ished,  doing  thus  what  was  possible  to  concentrate  the 
streams  of  commerce  and  immigration  in  this  region. 

Thus  along  many  lines,  in  Virginia,  Maryland,  and 
Pennsylvania,  the  westward  migration  went  on.  The 
mountains  were  like  a  sieve,  with  openings  enough, 
though  small ;  and  everything  that  went  through  cen 
tered,  as  if  in  a  funnel,  in  the  upper  Ohio  Valley. 
Here,  as  we  have  seen,  was  Pittsburg,  which  had  be 
come  a  city  a  few  years  before  the  Cumberland  Road 
was  finished.  She  had  already  begun  to  dig  the  coal 
from  her  neighboring  hills  and  drive  her  smoking  fur 
naces.  The  puff  of  the  steam  whistle  was  heard  on 
the  waters  of  the  Ohio,  and  goods  and  men  went 
down  the  valley  as  freely  as  did  the  waters  gathered 
from  the  Alleghany  plateau.  But  multitudes  had  not 
waited  for  steam.  They  had  been  going  for  a  gene 
ration,  from  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  in  canoes, 
scows,  and  on  rafts,  bound  for  Kentucky  or  the  settle 
ments  north  of  the  Ohio. 

We  have  now  seen  how  the  white  man  went  west- 


THE   APPALACHIAN    BARRIER  97 

ward  by  the  Mohawk  Valley.  How  great  this  avenue 
was  will  appear  again  when  we  follow  the  shores  of 
the  Great  Lakes  and  look  out  over  the  prairies.  We 
have  seen,  too,  that  the  Ohio  Valley  was  a  door  to  the 
West ;  but  we  have  yet  to  follow  another  stream  of 
migration  along  natural  highways  that  open  farther 
to  the  south.  Through  these  highways  went  the  men 
who  founded  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  and  shaped 
the  destinies  of  the  Southwest. 

We  may  now  recall  the  longitudinal  valleys  of  the 
Appalachians,  of  which  the  greatest  is  that  which  leads 
by  Harrisburg  and  Hagerstown  up  the  Shenandoah. 
When  the  early  settlers  had  occupied  these  fertile 
lands  in  Pennsylvania,  and  the  stream  of  life  must 
flow  farther,  it  was  easier  to  follow  the  valleys  to  the 
southwest  than  to  cross  the  ranges  and  to  come  out 
on  the  west.  Hence  before  the  rush  toward  Pittsburg 
began,  there  had  been  for  many  decades  a  longitudinal 
movement  into  Virginia,  and  then  beyond  to  the  head 
waters  of  the  Tennessee,  the  Watauga,  the  Holston, 
and  the  French  Broad.  Among  those  who  thus  went 
southwest  were  the  Scotch-Irish,  a  people  to  whom 
American  historians  are  now  beginning  to  render 
justice.  In  great  numbers  these  people,  English  in 
speech,  Scotch  in  blood,  Irish  by  adoption,  Presby 
terian  in  faith,  came  to  America.  Philadelphia  and 
the  Pennsylvania  lowlands  were  full  of  them.  Prince 
ton  University  is  their  memorial  in  New  Jersey.  They 
entered  the  Appalachian  valleys,  largely  populated 
West  Virginia,  and  were  the  backbone  of  the  young 
commonwealth  that  sprang  up  on  the  Tennessee  and 
the  Cumberland.  "  They  formed  the  kernel  of  the 


98  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

distinctively  and  intensely  American  stock  who  were 
the  pioneers  of  our  people  in  their  march  westward, 
the  vanguard  of  the  army  of  fighting  settlers  who,  with 
ax  and  rifle,  won  their  way  from  the  Alleghanies  to 
the  Rio  Grande  and  the  Pacific."  1 

Southwestern  Virginia  lies  for  a  hundred  miles  along 
the  northern  boundary  of  Tennessee.  This  boundary 
is  purely  arbitrary,  for  the  valleys,  the  mountain  ridges, 
and  the  streams  cross  it.  In  one  of  the  valleys  runs 
the  Norfolk  and  Western  Railway,  leading  up  to 
Roanoke,  and  thence  east,  across  the  Blue  Ridge, 
to  the  sea,  or  one  may  continue  northeast  through  the 
Shenandoah  Valley.  The  head  waters  of  the  Holston 
are  in  Virginia.  We  must  remember  that  what  is  now 
Tennessee  was  in  early  days  a  part  of  North  Caro 
lina,  an  ultramontane  country.  Now  we  can  under 
stand  how  the  backwoodsmen  of  Virginia  went  down 
the  Holston,  built  their  cabins,  girdled  the  big  trees, 
felled  the  little  ones,  planted  corn,  fought  the  savages, 
and  thought  they  were  still  in  Virginia.  When  they 
learned  their  mistake,  they  sought  to  be  taken  under 
the  wing  of  the  North  Carolina  government ;  and  their 
wish  was  granted,  perhaps  with  reluctance,  for  they 
had  a  name  worse  than  their  deserts.  They  were  the 
makers  of  a  new  commonwealth ;  they  had  wives  to 
support ;  they  had  no  time  to  wear  gloves  or  to  con 
sume  in  deciding  what  to  do  with  Tories  who  stirred 
up  the  red  men.  Thus  they  founded  the  Holston,  or, 
as  sometimes  called,  the  Watauga  settlements,  one  of 
the  two  early  seed  grounds  of  the  state  of  Tennessee. 

The  Holston  community  was  also  the  nursery  for 

1  Theodore  Roosevelt,  "Winning  of  the  West,"  I,  134. 


THE   APPALACHIAN    BARRIER  99 

another  commonwealth,  long  to  anticipate  Tennessee 
in  becoming  a  member  of  the  Union,  —  the  state  of 
Kentucky.  On  the  north  this  state  has  a  natural 
boundary,  the  Ohio  River.  On  the  south  she  is  geo 
graphically  one  with  Tennessee;  and  the  Cumberland 
River,  rising  in  the  more  northern  state,  passes  south 
of  the  boundary  by  a  long  bend,  and  returns  again 
toward  the  Ohio  River.  If  the  two  form  a  single 
province,  their  history  likewise  begins  with  the  same 
people,  the  same  fierce  battles  with  savages,  the  same 
heroic  endurance  of  a  wilderness  more  remote  than 
other  American  colonists  had  known.  To  the  settle 
ments  on  the  Atlantic,  Europe  was  almost  neighborly 
in  comparison, 

The  eastern  boundary  of  Kentucky,  for  a  consider 
able  distance,  is  formed  by  the  Cumberland  escarp 
ment.  Eastern  Kentucky  is  plateau,  and  it  overlooks 
the  valleys  of  Virginia.  Just  where  the  three  states 
now  come  together  —  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  and 
Tennessee  —  is  one  of  the  most  famous  points  in 
early  American  history.  There  is  a  break  in  the 
escarpment,  —  it  is  the  Cumberland  Gap.  By  it,  in 
1775,  Daniel  Boone  and  his  companions  climbed  out 
of  the  Appalachian  Valley  from  the  settlements  on 
the  Holston  and  began  to  blaze  an  equally  famous 
highway,  —  the  Wilderness  Road.  They  pushed  their 
way  through  the  forest,  had  a  preliminary  skirmish 
or  two  with  the  red  men,  and  founded  the  state  ot 
Kentucky.  Having  carried  the  American  frontier 
well  down  upon  the  Ohio  River  on  the  very  eve  of 
the  Revolution,  the  ground  was  American  at  its  close, 
and  was  the  outpost  of  freedom  in  the  struggle  for  the 


100  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

West  that  followed.     Boone  was  more  than  a  hunter ; 
he  was  one  of  the  builders  of  a  new  nation. 

By  the  close  of  the  war  the  new  colony  was  well 
established.  It  is  not  within  our  purpose  to  describe 
its  growth  or  character,  but  rather  to  follow  the  strong 
lines  drawn  by  nature,  along  which  the  migrating 
hosts  passed.  For  hosts  they  were,  when  the  cessa 
tion  of  hostilities  left  the  people  free  to  turn  to  the 
pursuits  of  peace.  Then  a  never  ending  procession 
of  boats  floated  down  the  Ohio  from  Pittsburg,  and 
a  perpetual  caravan  of  men,  women,  and  children,  of 
packhorses  and  cattle,  filed  under  the  rocky  cliffs 
of  the  Cumberland  Gap  and  followed  the  blazed  trees 
and  now  worn  path  of  the  Wilderness  Road.  In 
1769,  six  years  before  he  planted  the  permanent 
settlement,  Boone  had  made  his  first  journey  through 
this  gap  to  the  valley  of  the  Kentucky  River.  He 
was  returning,  therefore,  to  a  land  which  he  knew,  a 
land  whose  richness  and  beauty  has  won  all  behold 
ers  from  that  day  to  this.  Open  prairie  and  shaded 
woodland  were  there  then  as  they  are  to-day.  But 
there  were  uncounted  buffalo  also,  and  elk  and  deer, 
as  well  as  wild  creatures  of  fiercer  kinds.  In  a  few 
years  the  buffalo  ceased  to  visit  the  salt  licks,  and 
the  settlers  came  and  availed  themselves  of  the  salt, 
—  a  product  that  in  those  days  had  to  be  carried  far 
and  was  costly.  It  is  not  her  grains  and  fruits  that 
distinguish  Kentucky  from  other  states,  but  the 
meadows  and  pastures  of  the  "  Blue-grass  region." 
Says  Professor  Garman,  writing  in  an  agricultural  bul 
letin,  "The  phrase,  'down  in  Old  Kentucky,'  con 
veys  to  the  wandering  Kentuckian  a  picture  in  which 


102  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

are  sunny  slopes  of  soft,  green  grass ;  grazing  horses 
and  cattle,  sleek  and  beautiful.  .  .  .  Blue-grass  Ken 
tucky  is  a  delightful  bit  of  the  world  in  May  and 
June.  .  .  .  And  it  is  largely  the  result  of  the  pro 
fusion  with  which  the  little  plant,  blue-grass,  grows 
in  her  limestone  soil."  The  same  writer  proceeds  to 
say  that  a  bulletin  on  forage  plants  would  be  little 
needed  if  all  Kentucky  were  like  this  favored  fifth 
around  Lexington.  The  student  will  find  no  better 
illustration  of  geographic  control  —  agricultural,  so 
cial,  and  even  political  —  than  this  famous  region. 

The  reader  of  "  In  the  Tennessee  Mountains,"  or 
of  "The  Prophet  of  the  Great  Smoky  Mountains," 
finds  true  pictures  of  the  forests  and  hazy  mountain 
slopes  of  the  southern  Appalachians.  But  he  finds 
also  a  human  type  not  to  be  met  elsewhere  in  the 
United  States.  He  is  farmer,  hunter,  blacksmith, 
shopkeeper,  or  rude  preacher.  He  is  courageous, 
original,  reads  the  sky  and  forest  in  lieu  of  books, 
and  is  little  troubled  by  the  outside  world.  He  could 
not  raise  cotton,  he  did  not  own  slaves,  and  his  sym 
pathies  were  with  the  North  rather  than  with  the  South 
in  the  Civil  War.  His  family  lives  as  his  great-grand 
father's  family  lived,  for  change  is  almost  unknown. 
Division  of  labor  has  little  place  in  such  a  society, 
where  homespun  still  prevails.  These  men  are  the 
descendants  of  the  backwoodsmen,  who  came  from 
the  Old  World,  from  Pennsylvania,  from  Virginia,  and 
the  Carolinas,  to  the  Holston,  the  French  Broad,  the 
Kentucky,  and  the  Cumberland.  Retired  from  all  the 
world,  they  reveal  the  effects  of  a  stable  environment 
in  a  remote  region. 


THE   APPALACHIAN    BARRIER  103 

There  is  peculiar  continuity  of  conditions  through 
out  the  long  range  of  the  southern  Appalachians. 
There  run  valleys  and  forested  ridges  from  Virginia 
into  Alabama.  There  an  archaic  and  almost  fossil 
type  of  life  has  come  into  being.  A  temperate 
climate  prevails  far  southward,  run  in  like  a  wedge 
between  the  hot  lowlands  of  the  Carolinas  and  the 
Mississippi  Valley.  The  isothermal  lines  of  the 
weather  map  will  sometimes  run  from  New  York  to 
Alabama  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  and 
then  double  and  return  direct  northward  to  south 
ern  Michigan,  where  they  turn  off  again  westward. 
Mountain,  valley,  forest,  and  climate  form  a  realm 
of  upland  within  lowlands,  with  strongest  industrial, 
social,  and  political  contrasts.  There  are  counties  in 
North  Carolina  that  do  not  contain  a  single  negro. 
But  within  this  land  are  noble  and  modern  cities,— 
Knoxville,  where  the  Tennessee  is  formed  by  con 
fluent  streams,  and  Chattanooga,  where  the  same  river 
leaves  the  great  valley  and  goes  out  through  the  Cum 
berland  plateau.  We  shall  have  occasion,  in  the 
chapter  on  the  Civil  War,  to  return  to  Chattanooga 
and  describe  its  surroundings  with  care,  but  these 
cities  shall  now  stand  for  the  great  industrial  unfold 
ing  of  the  last  generation  in  this  gateway  of  the  South. 
From  Virginia  to  Alabama  plentiful  coal  and  iron  lie 
close  to  each  other,  sometimes  "  at  pistol  range." 
There  is  limestone  also  for  flux,  and  thus  the  condi 
tions  for  the  making  of  iron  are  perfect.  There  is 
water-power  in  many  mountain  streams,  and  the  cotton 
belt  is  not  far  away.  Just  outside  the  gate  is  Atlanta, 
predestined  by  its  situation  to  be  a  metropolis.  The 


104  CxEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

new  life  of  the  South  is  gradually  penetrating  the 
wilds,  bringing  education  and  modern  invention 
into  the  most  distant  corners  of  this  Southern  world, 
and  the  sternest  commands  of  nature  are  in  the  end 
softened,  if  not  defied,  by  man. 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE  GREAT  LAKES  AND  AMERICAN  COMMERCE 

NORTH  AMERICA  has  its  mountain  systems  on  the 
east  and  west.  Between  them  is  a  vast  lowland, 
wider  at  the  north,  narrower  at  the  south,  but  spa 
cious  everywhere.  One  may  follow  the  Mississippi, 
the  Minnesota,  and  the  Red  River  of  the  North,  pass 
Lake  Winnipeg  and  Hudson  Bay,  and  come  out  on 
the  Arctic  Sea.  Nowhere  in  his  journey  must  he  be 
more  than  one  thousand  feet  above  the  ocean  level. 
If  the  great  mountains  had  been  massed  in  the  central 
parts  of  the  continent,  their  uplands  might  have  been 
as  arid  and  remote  and  their  inhabitants  as  strange 
and  averse  to  intrusion  as  among  the  plateaus  of 
central  Asia.  But  North  America  has  the  conti 
nental  type  of  Europe  or  South  America,  with  moun 
tain  borders  and  central  plains.  In  South  America 
these  plains  are  threaded  by  rivers ;  in  Europe  sea- 
waters  pierce  the  heart  of  the  lands ;  but  North 
America  has  both,  and  more, — the  Hudson  Bay, 
the  Mississippi  and  Mackenzie,  and  the  fresh-water 
seas  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  Suppose  there  had  been 
no  Great  Lakes ;  perhaps,  before  the  glacial  time, 
there  were  none.  Suppose  there  was  only  a  larger 
St.  Lawrence,  with  many  branches,  flowing  from  the 
region  of  Superior  and  Michigan  ;  such,  very  likely, 


106  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

there  was.  Or,  suppose  the  waters  of  the  Lake  region 
had  found  no  gap  across  the  eastern  mountains  and 
had  become  tributary  to  the  Ohio.  If  we  look  at 
a  relief  map  of  North  America,  this  seems  an  easy 
(  alternative. 

What,  in  any  case,  would  American  history  have 
been  ?  Where  would  the  Frenchman  have  planted 
himself,  and  would  there  have  been  a  French  and 
Indian  War,  and  where  would  the  battle-ground  be 
found  ?  These  are  idle  questions  if  we  look  for 
answers  ;  but  they  may  mean  much  if  they  fix  our 
eyes  on  the  lakes  and  make  us  see  how  large  a  place 
they  have  in  the  life  of  man  on  this  continent. 

Various  European  nations  were  sending  vessels 
to  the  cod  banks  of  Newfoundland  about  the  begin 
ning  of  the  sixteenth  century.  There  is,  according 
to  Parkman,  some  evidence  that  Europeans  began 
to  fish  in  these  waters  before  1497,  the  year  of  Cabot's 
voyage.  At  all  events,  the  French  had  learned  the 
road,  and  it  was  but  little  more  for  them  to  sail  be 
tween  Cape  North  and  Cape  Ray  and  find  themselves 
within  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  with  its  ample 
waters  and  its  varied  shores.  It  was  Jacques  Cartier 
who,  in  1534,  had  sailed  from  St.  Malo  that  he  might 
search  the  unknown  regions  beyond  the  fishing-banks. 
He  did  not,  however,  take  the  broader  gateway  to 
the  south  of  Newfoundland,  but  went  up  by  the  east 
shore  and  threaded  the  straits  of  Belle  Isle. 

In  the  year  following  he  was  again  fitted  out  that 
he  might  ascend  the  St.  Lawrence.  He  went  up 
to  the  Indian  village  of  Hochelaga,  where  now  is 
Montreal.  Though  he  made  a  later  voyage,  he  did 


THE   GREAT   LAKES  IO/ 

not  succeed  in  planting  a  colony  on  the  river  —  this 
was  left  to  successors  who  were  more  daring,  or  more 
enduring,  than  he.  But  for  us  his  first  voyage  is  full 
of  meaning.  He  entered  the  continent  by  its  north- , 
ern  gateway,  and  he  found  the  two  natural  centers 
of  human  population  on  the  great  rivers ;  for  in 
selecting  a  site  on  which  to  plant  a  town,  the  instincts 
of  the  savage  were  as  sure  as  those  of  the  white  man. 

Among  the  later  and  greater  men  was  Champlain. 
We  have  seen  him  on  the  New  England  coast,  but 
his  name  is  written  in  the  St.  Lawrence  country  and 
in  the  waters  that  divide  New  York  and  New  Eng 
land  ;  and  it  was  left  for  others  to  make  known  the 
country  of  the  Lakes.  His  first  project  suggests  a 
striking  feature  of  the  map  of  North  America.  Fol 
low  the  estuary  and  river  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  Lake 
Ontario,  Lake  Erie,  the  Ohio  River,  and  the  Missis 
sippi.  Almost  in  a  straight  line  do  these  waters  join 
the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
La  Salle  was  at  La  Chien,  above  Montreal.  The 
Indians  had  told  him  of  the  Ohio  River,  and  he  set 
out  to  explore  it.  His  story  is  rehearsed  by  the  his 
torians,  and  we  may  only  see  how  geographic  features 
shaped  his  courses.  To  go  up  the  St.  Lawrence  was 
inevitable,  and  they  reached  the  lake,  "  like  a  great 
sea  with  no  land  beyond  it,"  writes  the  pious  father 
who  accompanied  him. 

A  few  miles  east  of  Rochester,  Irondequoit  Bay 
penetrates  several  miles  into  the  lands  of  western 
New  York.  It  is  almost  shut  off  from  the  lake  by 
a  sand  bar,  over  which  the  railway  now  passes. 
Through  this  depression  it  is  believed  that  the  pre- 


108  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

glacial  Genesee  entered  the  valley  where  Lake  On 
tario  now  is.  But  with  the  river  shifted  to  the  west 
this  landlocked  bay  invited  entrance ;  and  here  La 
Salle  found  the  Seneca  Indians,  from  whom  he  hoped 
to  secure  a  guide  to  the  Ohio.  This  plan  did  not 
mature,  and  he  later  went  to  the  western  end  of  Lake 
Ontario,  near  the  present  city  of  Hamilton,  where  he 
met  Joliet,  who  had  returned  from  the  upper  lakes. 
They  did  not  remain  long  together,  and  Joliet  and 
his  companions  were  soon  threading  the  waters  of 
Detroit,  and  La  Salle,  as  is  believed  by  some,  was 
accomplishing  his  exploration  of  the  Ohio  River. 
Later  he  went  to  the  greater  lakes,  voyaged  up  Huron, 
passed  Mackinac,  and  landed  at  the  south  end  of 
Lake  Michigan.  He  made  the  easy  pass  to  the  Illi 
nois,  but  how  far  he  descended  it  is  not  known.  His 
planting  of  a  settlement  on  the  Illinois  and  his  voyage 
down  the  Mississippi  to  the  Gulf  belong  to  a  later 
period.  It  was  left  for  Joliet  and  Marquette  to  enter 
Green  Bay,  pass  from  the  Fox  River  to  the  Wiscon 
sin,  discover  the  Mississippi,  and  float  with  its  current 
to  a  point  but  seven  hundred  miles  from  the  Gulf. 

Few  spots  in  America  have  so  much  historic  color 
as  Niagara.  And  the  physiographer  sees  the  short 
centuries  of  human  occupation  against  the  back 
ground  of  ages  of  physical  evolution.  Savage,  ex 
plorer,  colonist,  soldier,  and  man  of  science  have 
gathered  here,  and  now  the  place  seems  likely  to  be 
come  the  industrial  center  of  the  continent;  but  man's 
part  can  hardly  be  so  dramatic  and  wonderful  as  the 
story  of  Niagara  in  more  ancient  days. 

When  La  Salle  was,  for  the  time,  drawn  away  from 


1 10  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

the  Ohio  River  and  went  along  the  lake  shore  with 
Joliet,  he  crossed  the  lower  Niagara,  where,  a  com 
monplace  stream,  it  flows  over  the  Ontario  plain 
between  Lewiston  and  the  lake.  He  must  have 
heard  the  roar  of  the  falls  and  perhaps  wondered  at 
the  origin  of  the  solemn  and  pervasive  music,  but  he 
was  not  to  discover  the  cataract.  It  was  Hennepin 
who  passed  up  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  looked  down 
upon  the  Whirlpool  Rapids,  and  made  with  his  pen 
cil  the  picture  whose  conventional  rows  of  trees,  and 
towering  Goat  Island  rocks,  have  given  the  ancient 
priest  an  immortality  which  the  master  of  landscape 
would  sigh  for  in  vain. 

In  1679  La  Salle  joined  his  name  to  Niagara. 
Here,  above  the  falls,  was  built  the  Griffon^  a  little 
vessel  of  forty-five  tons,  and  here  she  was  moored 
until  her  master  should  return  with  supplies  from 
Fort  Frontenac.  These  necessaries  had  to  be  carried 
up  the  Lewiston  Heights,  among  them  the  anchor, 
requiring  four  men,  as  Parkman  relates,  "well  stimu 
lated  with  brandy,"  to  bring  it  to  the  plateau  above. 
The  Griffon  went  to  Green  Bay,  La  Salle  went  on  into 
the  wilderness,  and  the  ship  setting  out  to  return, 
loaded  with  furs,  was  lost. 

Thus  Niagara  took  its  place  in  the  human  world. 
It  was  a  goal,  and  it  was  a  point  of  departure.  Follow 
the  Lakes,  for  exploration,  for  commerce,  for  war,  and 
you  must  take  account  of  it.  Try  to  learn  the  story 
of  the  Lakes,  to  know  their  beginnings  and  their  his 
tory,  and  a  score  of  geologists  must  center  their 
studies  on  Niagara,  so  large  is  her  part  in  the  making 
of  things. 


THE    GREAT    LAKES  III 

If  there  were  no  rapids  above  Montreal  and  no 
winter  ice  in  the  St.  Lawrence,  would  Buffalo  be 
more  than  a  modest  town  ?  Rather  would  not  the 
railways  from  the  west,  passing  Detroit,  cross  Onta 
rio  and  center  upon  Hamilton,  there  to  load  ships  for 
Liverpool,  Glasgow,  and  Hamburg  ?  Possibly,  be 
cause  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence  is  so  far  north, 
an  Erie  Canal  might  have  saved  something  for  Buf 
falo  and  New  York.  Or  we  will  suppose  the  St. 
Lawrence  as  it  is,  but  no  Niagara,  and  a  perfect 
waterway  from  Erie  to  Ontario.  Would  not  the  in 
terior  metropolis  of  New  York  then  be  Oswego? 
Here  would  be  the  eastern  limit  of  navigation  and 
the  point  of  reshipment  for  the  Mohawk  Valley. 
Niagara  makes  the  difference,  and  hence  it  is  that 
Lake  Erie  is  swept  by  the  great  vessels  of  the  upper 
lakes,  and  Ontario  is  in  comparison  a  lonely  water. 
It  is  hers  to  bear  a  modest  freight,  a  few  lines  of 
tourist  steamers,  and  spend  the  rest  of  her  energies 
carving  cliffs  in  the  massive  glacial  drift  that  often 
borders  her  shores.  The  story  of  her  future  com 
merce,  however,  is  not  written. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  Ontario  Lake 
plain,  crossed  by  the-  lower  Niagara  ;  to  the  cliffs  at 
Lewiston  ;  to  the  gorge,  and  to  the  Niagara  plateau. 
For  the  reader  who  has  not  visited  the  region,  it  will 
be  useful  to  explain  more  fully  the  geographical  sur 
roundings  of  the  Falls.  In  an  earlier  chapter,  the 
lake  plains  of  western  New  York  were  distinguished 
from  the  Alleghany  plateau.  But  there  are  really 
two  lake  plains.  Lake  Erie  lies  in  the  upper  one, 
which  slopes  abruptly  up  into  the  Alleghany  pla- 


112  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

teau,  beyond  Dunkirk  and  Chautauqua,  but  stretches 
smoothly  eastward  from  Buffalo  for  many  miles. 
Lake  Ontario  lies  in  the  lower  plain,  and  the  differ 
ence  of  altitude  between  the  two  lake  surfaces  is 
nearly  three  hundred  feet.  About  half  of  this  verti 
cal  interval  is  accounted  for  by  the  bluffs  at  Lewiston. 
These  face  north  and  are  known  as  the  Niagara  es 
carpment.  This  wall  runs  west,  far  through  Ontario, 
and  east  toward  Rochester.  The  famous  series  of 
locks  at  Lockport  carries  the  Erie  Canal  from  the 
upper  to  the  lower  plain.  The  upper  surface,  viewed 
in  reference  to  Lake  Erie,  is  a  lake  plain,  and  was 
formerly  flooded  with  lake  waters.  Viewed  in  refer 
ence  to  Ontario,  it  is  the  Niagara  plateau.  Its  smooth 
top  is  formed  upon  the  flat  Niagara  limestone,  and 
the  escarpment  is  chiefly  the  north  or  exposed  edge 
of  this  formation.  When  Niagara  began  to  flow,  it 
fell  over  the  bluff  at  Lewiston.  Cutting  away  the 
limestone  under  the  brink,  the  fall  has  receded  until 
it  is  now  seven  miles  south,  and  the  Niagara  Gorge 
is  seven  miles  long  —  a  history  which  seems  simple, 
and  is,  in  this,  its  great  feature,  but  in  many  other 
ways  is  an  intricate  story  and  difficult  to  decipher. 

On  Lake  Erie  we  are  573  feet  above  the  sea.  If 
we  go  up  through  the  Detroit  and  St.  Clair  rivers, 
upon  Lake  Huron  or  Michigan,  we  are  but  8  feet 
higher.  And  if  we  ascend  through  the  locks  of  the 
"  Soo  "  to  Lake  Superior,  we  add  blit  21  feet  more, 
and  our  altitude  is  602  feet.  A  little  help  from  man, 
therefore,  turns  the  four  upper  lakes  into  a  single  sea, 
with  free  navigation  between  remotest  points.  Thus, 
too,  we  can  see  how  the  cutting  of  the  Chicago  Drain- 


114  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

age  Canal  might  become  a  matter  of  concern,  not 
merely  to  St.  Louis,  for  fear  of  sewage,  but  to  Cleve 
land  or  Buffalo,  if  a  considerable  portion  of  Niagara 
should  be  diverted  to  the  Mississippi.  If  this  be 
speculation,  it  serves  at  least  to  point  out  the  delicate 
balance  of  the  lake  waters.  They  are  a  great  sea, 
and  the  southwest  pass  is  so  low  that  "  tidal  waves 
arising  in  Lake  Michigan  sometimes  overflowed  the 
dividing  ridge.  The  early  explorers  of  the  Great 
Lakes  are  known  to  have  passed,  during  the  spring 
freshets,  in  their  canoes  from  one  valley  to  the  other, 
by  that  route  which  enables  the  modern  Chicago  to 
discharge  its  sewage  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  instead 
of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence."1 

The  chief  drainage  of  the  Great  Lake  region  was 
once  carried  to  the  sea  by  the  Chicago  outlet.  And 
still  later  the  waters  of  the  upper  lakes  went  through 
the  Mohawk  Valley  to  the  Hudson,  and  later  still  they 
went  by  the  Ottawa  Valley  to  the  St.  Lawrence.  Now 
they  go  by  Port  Huron  and  Niagara.  Let  us  not 
think  that  this  present  arrangement  must  last  for 
ever.  We  know  that  in  late  geological  times,  even 
since  the  close  of  the  glacial  period,  most  of  the  plain 
that  holds  the  Lakes  has  been  given  an  increasing  slant 
toward  the  southwest.  Mr.  G.  K.  Gilbert,  following 
up  this  suggestion,  has  shown  with  an  approach  to 
certainty  that  this  tilting  is  yet  going  on,  with  the  re 
sult  that  in  a  few  centuries  the  Lakes  would  withdraw 
some  of  their  waters  from  the  Niagara  to  the  Missis 
sippi,  and  in  a  few  thousand  years  would  leave  Niagara 
dry.  The  tilting  may  not,  however,  go  on,  and  if  it 

1  Winsor,  "  Cartier  to  Frontenac,"  p.  4. 


THE   GREAT    LAKES  115 

does,  man  can  restrain  the  change  of  outflow  for  a 
long  period  if  he  desires. 

Vast  as  the  Lakes  are,  they  have  seen  many  revolu 
tions  and  are  still  young.  They  rest  in  shallow 
depressions  on  a  widespreading  plain,  which,  so  to 
speak,  is  so  delicately  poised  that  movements  within 
the  earth  can  change  the  face  of  things,  and  might 
have  made  quite  other  than  it  is,  the  theater  of  Amer 
ican  history. 

It  is  time  for  us  to  tell  in  a  more  connected  way  the 
story  of  the  Lakes,  and  to  put  in  their  true  setting  the 
scattered  facts  already  given.  Many  questions  about 
their  origin  cannot  now  be  answered,  but  the  closing 
events  are  better  known  than  the  early  stages  of  the 
history.  It  will  be  useful,  in  a  preliminary  way,  to 
banish  false  notions  about  the  depth  of  the  lake 
basins.  One  thousand  feet  seems  a  great  depth  of 
water,  but  Lake  Superior  is  four  hundred  miles  long. 
The  ratio  of  depth  to  length  is  about  one  to  two  thou 
sand.  With  this  ratio  a  lake  one  mile  long  would  be 
two  and  one-half  feet  deep.  If  we  could  drain  the 
basin  of  Lake  Superior,  it  would  present  a  vast  plain, 
with  hardly  a  variation  from  the  horizontal  that  the 
eye  could  detect.  The  case  would  be  similar  with 
Michigan,  Huron,  and  Ontario,  while  Erie  is  yet  more 
surprising.  Her  depth  is  to  length  nearly  as  one  to 
seven  thousand,  and  a  lake  one  mile  long  would  be 
nine  or  ten  inches  deep  ! 

We  cannot  have  a  fair  opinion  about  the  forces  that 
made  the  basins  unless  we  remember  that  these 
basins  are  mere  scratches  on  the  continent,  or  faint 
sags,  like  those  that  harbor  shallow  water  in  a  flat 


Il6  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

meadow  after  rain.  We  should  also  put  the  depth  of 
the  Lakes  in  relation  to  sea-level.  All  but  Lake  Erie 
reach  below  this  horizon,  —  Superior  about  four  hun 
dred  feet,  Ontario  nearly  five  hundred  feet,  Michigan 
nearly  three  hundred  feet,  and  Huron  about  150  feet. 
Erie,  being  so  shallow,  keeps  its  bottom  363  feet  above 
the  sea. 

Look  upon  the  map  of  the  Laurentian  waters  and 
imagine  the  Lakes  shrinking  in  width  until  they  be 
come  mere  sections  of  a  great  St.  Lawrence  River, 
rising  in  Minnesota  and  on  the  highlands  north  of 
Lake  Superior.  Let  it  flow  somewhere  near  the 
"  Soo"  and  take  in  a  branch  from  along  the  axis  of 
Lake  Michigan.  Let  it  pass  the  Huron,  to  the  On 
tario  country,  receiving  branches  from  southern 
Ontario  and  northern  Ohio,  and  then  go  down  to  the 
sea.  If  there  was  such  a  greater  St.  Lawrence,  this 
may  not  be  a  true  picture  of  it,  but  it  would  probably 
do  for  the  essentials. 

If  we  could  now  imagine  great  sections  of  these 
river  valleys  to  be  deepened,  or  to  be  in  any  manner 
shut  off  from  the  sea,  the  surplus  rain-waters  would 
gather  in  them,  and  we  should  see  the  inland  seas  of 
to-day. 

We  have  taken  this  way  of  approaching  what  is 
perhaps  the  leading  theory  about  the  Lakes,  that  they 
lie  in  blocked  river  valleys.  Then  the  query  comes, 
—  what  sort  of  barriers  are  these,  or  what  could  they 
be  ?  The  Lake  country  is  now  tipping  to  the  south 
west  ;  it  is  not  a  very  disturbing  motion,  —  about 
five  inches  in  a  distance  of  one  hundred  miles  in  a 
century.  But  that  would  be  four  feet  in  a  thousand 


THE   GREAT   LAKES  117 

years,  and  a  thousand  years  in  the  earth's  history  is 
not  much.  We  can  see  that  such  tilting  would  hinder 
the  flow  of  Ontario's  waters  past  the  Thousand 
Islands  and  would  make  the  lake  deeper.  The 
basins  may,  therefore,  be  partly  due  to  uprising  of  the 
lands  toward  the  outlets  of  the  rivers. 

But  the  Lakes  are  doubtless  not  due  to  this  single 
cause.  Every  foot  of  the  Lake  country  was  occupied 
by  glacial  ice.  Massive  beds  of  drift,  in  sheets  or 
morainic  heaps,  were  left  when  the  ice  melted  away. 
The  moraines  show  themselves  in  hills,  and  the  sheets 
are  often  revealed  by  deep  borings,  or  by  their  cover 
ing  the  country  so  smoothly  and  so  deeply  that  in 
certain  regions,  bed-rock  rarely  comes  to  the  surface. 
Ancient  valleys  were  often  shut  up  by  bodies  of 
drift,  and  multitudes  of  the  smaller  lakes  lie  in  such 
pockets  in  old  valleys.  There  is  no  reason  why  great 
valleys  should  not  in  some  places  have  been  barred 
in  the  same  way.  Moving  glaciers  also  remove  rocks 
from  beneath  them.  Their  weight  is  great,  and  they 
are  shod  with  sand  and  boulders.  But  they  do  not 
erode  equally  everywhere.  Where  the  ice  is  thickest 
or  is  hardest  pushed,  both  from  its  own  weight  and 
the  onthrust  from  behind,  there  it  will  dig  most. 
Thus  some  observers  believe  that  the  Great  Lake 
basins  are  more  due  to  glacial  erosion  than  to  any 
thing  else.  There  is  no  reason  why  all  the  causes 
which  have  been  described  may  not  have  lent  their 
aid. 

There  is  another  word  to  be  added  to  this  bundle 
of  queries.  The  relations  of  the  rocks  here  are  such 
that  valley-making  seems  inevitable  in  the  long 


Il8  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

preglacial  time.  The  softer,  horizontal  strata  of 
the  Northern  United  States  abut  against  the  hard, 
ancient  core  of  North  America,  found  in  Canada. 
Where  these  flat  beds  run  over  the  southerly  slopes 
of  the  crystalline  uplands  of  the  north,  they  would 
suffer  most  destruction,  and  by  laws  known  to  physi 
ography,  valleys  would  grow,  of  which  the  primitive 
land  forms  give  no  hint.  Some  sort  of  a  St.  Law 
rence  River  system  was  to  be  expected  from  earliest 
times.  Movements  of  the  land,  glacial  blockades,  and 
glacial  erosion  have  done  the  rest. 

The  later  development  of  the  Lakes  can  be  more 
clearly  told.  When  the  historian  has  pieced  together 
from  stray  inscriptions  and  traditions  a  doubtful 
story  of  early  man,  he  may  come  down  to  a  point 
where  records  abound,  and  libraries  give  him  more 
material  than  he  can  use.  Then,  if  he  have  diligence 
and  judgment,  he  can  move  with  firm  step.  Some 
thing  like  this  certainty  we  have,  —  when  the  continen 
tal  glacier  was  disappearing,  when  the  lakes  were 
often  larger,  —  and  always  of  forms  different  from 
those  of  to-day.  Great  bodies  of  water  leave  on  their 
borders  inscriptions  which  centuries  may  not  destroy 
or  deface.  By  records  of  ancient  shore-lines,  we 
prove  that  the  Lakes  were  often  larger  and  had 
higher  levels  than  they  now  have.  4 

If  the  reader  would  know  this  history,  let  him 
clearly  trace  the  line  of  water  partings  that  separate 
the  St.  Lawrence  basin  from  those  of  the  Mississippi 
and  Susquehanna.  In  Minnesota  the  head  waters  of 
the  Mississippi  reach  close  to  Lake  Superior.  Wis 
consin  is  more  evenly  divided,  where  the  Fox  and 


120  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

Wisconsin  rivers  head  against  each  other  in  the  cen 
tral  part  of  the  state.  In  Illinois  the  parting  is  hard 
by  Chicago  and  is  overcome  by  a  few  feet  of  dig 
ging.  It  crosses  northern  Indiana  and  northern  Ohio, 
and  runs  close  to  Lake  Erie,  as  it  enters  western 
New  York.  In  New  York  the  divide  is  south  of  the 
Finger  Lakes,  and  we  need  pursue  it  no  further  ex 
cept  to  mark  on  the  map  the  place  of  Elmira. 

When  the  ice  was  at  its  limits  it  lay  far  southward 
over  the  line  of  water  partings.  The  ice-sheet  was 
removed  by  gradual  melting  on  the  south.  Some 
times  it  disappeared  from  great  regions  and  advanced 
again.  When  at  any  point  the  ice  melted  north  of 
the  divide,  a  lake  would  result.  Its  basin  would  be 
formed  by  the  height  of  land  on  the  south  and  the 
glacial  ice  on  the  north.  Its  form  would  depend  on 
the  turns  of  the  line  of  water  parting  and  the  irregu 
larities  of  the  ice  front ;  the  water  would  be  supplied 
by  the  melting  ice ;  the  outlets  would  be  across  the 
divides  into  head  waters  of  the  Mississippi  and  Sus- 
quehanna. 

Now  we  can  understand  what  was  happening  at 
the  head  of  the  present  Lake  Michigan.  After  the 
ice  began  to  melt  northward,  out  of  the  Lake  Michi 
gan  basin,  the  site  of  Chicago  was  flooded.  The 
overflow  went  along  the  line  of  the  Drainage  Canal 
into  the  Illinois  River.  The  longer  the  ice  melted, 
the  greater  became  the  lake,  and  the  more  water 
poured  out  toward  the  Mississippi.  Exactly  similar 
things  were  taking  place  at  about  the  same  time,  at 
the  head  of  the  Superior  basin.  Along  the  slopes 
about  Duluth  the  old  beaches  tell  the  story.  The  ice 


THE   GREAT    LAKES  121 

filled  more  or  less  of  the  lake  basin,  holding  up  the 
waters  so  that  they  poured  over  into  the  St.  Croix, 
and  thus  went  to  the  Gulf.  If  we  go  to  Indiana  and 
Ohio,  the  conditions  are  the  same,  only  now  we  are 
at  the  head  of  the  Lake  Erie  lobe  of  the  glacier. 
As  before  it  is  melting  away,  and  lake  waters  rise 
against  the  divide  and  flow  over,  at  Fort  Wayne, 
where  the  ancient  channel,  now  dry,  has  been  traced 
and  has  been  shown  to  be  in  harmony  with  old 
beaches  in  Indiana  and  Ohio. 

At  Elmira  in  New  York,  or  a  little  to  the  north,  is 
the  lowest  southward  pass  in  the  state,  east  of  the 
Hudson,  not  quite  a  thousand  feet  above  the  sea. 
Think  of  the  glacier,  still  massive,  where  Lake  Ontario 
now  is,  and  reaching  well  up  into  western  New  York. 
All  the  basins  of  the  Finger  Lakes  then  held  lakes 
deeper  and  greater  than  now.  Southward,  these  lakes 
were  restrained  by  the  divides.  Northward,  as  before, 
they  laved  the  ice  front.  And  for  a  time  their 
northern  ends  coalesced,  and  they  had  a  common  out 
let  through  Seneca  Valley,  past  Elmira,  and  down 
the  Chemung  to  the  Susquehanna. 

We  must  remind  the  reader  that  these  lakes  at  the 
head  of  Superior,  Michigan,  and  Erie,  and  in  western 
New  York,  may  not  have  been  contemporaneous,  but 
they  represent  a  stage  in  the  retreat  of  the  ice,  and 
were  not  far  apart,  as  the  geologist  reckons  time.  As 
the  ice  melted  yet  more,  the  lowlands  of  the  Lake 
region  were  flooded,  larger  lakes  were  formed,  and 
some  of  the  old  outlets  were  abandoned  because  the 
passes  were  too  high.  One  of  these  vast  lakes  ex 
tended  from  the  Finger  Lake  region  westward,  over 


122  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

much  of  northern  Ohio,  southern  Ontario,  and  south 
ern  Michigan.  Its  outlet  crossed  the  unsubmerged 
part  of  southern  Michigan  and  entered  the  Michigan 
basin,  whence  the  waters  passed  out  by  the  Chicago 
outlet.  This  ancient  body  of  water  was  held  to  its 
place  by  the  great  glacier  that  still  blocked  the  Mo 
hawk  and  St.  Lawrence  valleys  and  the  eastern 
Ontario  region.  The  beaches  which  mark  its  pres 
ence  and  prove  its  reality  are  about  870  feet  above 
the  sea,  and  it  is  known  as  Lake  Warren. 

By  various  stages  these  waters  were  drawn  down,  the 
channel  across  Michigan  was  abandoned,  and  we  find 
the  outflow  taking  place  by  the  Mohawk  Valley.  The 
outline  of  the  Great  Lakes  has  been  revolutionized. 
Western  New  York  is  in  great  part  dry  land,  but 
Lake  Ontario  washes  the  base  of  the  Niagara  escarp 
ment,  flows  up  the  Cayuga  Valley,  absorbs  Oneida 
Lake,  and  sends  its  waters  to  the  Hudson.  This 
drainage  makes  a  great  river,  for  it  comes  not  only 
from  the  greater  Ontario  but  from  a  vast  upper 
lake,  which,  absorbing  Superior,  Michigan,  and  Hu 
ron,  discharges  across  the  Province  of  Ontario  into 
Iroquois,  for  this  is  the  name  which  we  should  give  to 
the  ancestral  Ontario.  Another  great  result  of  the 
descent  of  the  Warren  waters  to  the  Iroquois  level 
was  the  uncovering  of  the  Niagara  escarpment,  and 
the  beginning  of  Niagara  River  and  Niagara  cat 
aract.  But  it  will  be  observed  that  it  was  a  small 
Niagara,  for  the  upper  waters  were  going  more 
directly  to  the  sea,  by  way  of  the  Georgian  Bay 
region  and  Lake  Iroquois. 

Later  still  we  find  no  ice  in  the  St.  Lawrence  Val- 


THE   GREAT   LAKES  123 

ley.  Here,  then,  was  a  lower  outlet  for  Lake  Iroquois, 
and  the  Mohawk  Valley  was  abandoned,  save  by  the 
little  stream  gathered  from  the  New  York  uplands. 
At  the  same  time,  the  upper  lake  waters  had  shifted 
to  a  more  northern  outlet  and  were  reaching  the  St. 
Lawrence  by  way  of  the  Ottawa  Valley.  The  whole 
St.  Lawrence  region  was  now  so  low  that  the  sea  flowed 
freely  in,  and  the  tides  were  felt  far  up  the  Ottawa 
Valley  and  to  the  head  of  Lake  Ontario  and  in  the 
valley  of  Lake  Champlain.  Niagara  was  still  a  little 
river  and  could  boast  only  of  the  waters  of  Lake  Erie, 
and  Lake  Erie  was  smaller  than  it  is  to-day.  And 
now  comes  the  closing  scene  in  this  long  drama.  The 
eastern  country  began  to  rise  and  the  sea  to  retire  from 
Lake  Ontario  and  the  upper  St.  Lawrence.  By  and 
by  the  uplift  had  become  too  great  to  permit  the 
upper  lake  waters  to  flow  east  by  the  Ottawa  Valley. 
They  swing  back  to  Port  Huron  and  Niagara,  and 
Niagara  became  the  great  river  which  it  is  to-day. 

This  is  the  upward  movement  of  the  land  which,  as 
Mr.  Gilbert  has  shown,  is  probably  still  going  on.  In 
our  short  story  of  the  Lakes  we  have  been  able  to  see 
how  the  ice  filled  their  basins  and  perhaps  deepened 
them,  how  small  lakes  were  replaced  by  greater  ones, 
and  how  successive  outflows  of  their  waters  have  been 
directed  to  the  southward,  westward,  eastward,  and 
northeastward.  The  lands  have  changed  their  levels, 
and  Niagara  has  been  born  and  grown  to  be  what 
she  is. 

At  Lewiston,  N.Y.,  on  the  plain  below  the  Ni 
agara  escarpment,  is  a  low  ridge  of  gravel  running 
eastward.  It  is  prolonged  through  several  coun- 


124  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

ties  in  western  New  York,  and  has  been  used  for 
a  line  of  highway  since  the  days  of  the  earliest 
settlers.  This  avenue,  leading  through  rich  farm 
ing  and  fruit  lands,  has  always  been  known  as  the 
Ridge  Road.  It  represents  in  part  only  the  beach 
of  the  ancient  Lake  Iroquois,  which  has  been  fol 
lowed  eastward  to  central  New  York,  and  then 
northward  to  Watertown.  At  Lewiston  the  beach 
is  about  140  feet  above  Lake  Ontario,  but  at  the 
east  end  of  the  lake  it  is  from  two  hundred  to  three 
hundred  feet  higher  than  the  lake  surface.  As  the 
old  beach  must  have  been  horizontal  when  made, 
we  find  here  the  proof  that  the  region  has  been  given 
an  inclination  to  the  west  and  southwest.  The  story 
of  these  beaches  would  be  a  long  one;  but  when  it  is 
read  it  gives  a  convincing  sense  of  reality  concerning 
the  glacial  lakes  which  we  have  described.  Finding  the 
beaches  in  Ohio,  and  girding  the  slopes  of  Mackinac 
Island,  or  high  above  the  waters  of  Lake  Superior, 
and  surmounted  now  by  the  great  buildings  and  busy 
streets  of  Duluth,  we  cannot  doubt  their  meaning. 
The  most  skeptical  should  yield  credence,  when,  cor 
relating  with  the  shore-lines,  he  finds  the  outlet  chan 
nels  at  Chicago,  at  Fort  Wayne,  at  Elmira,  at  Rome, 
or  in  the  Mattawa  Valley  leading  from  Georgian 
Bay  to  the  Ottawa  River. 

Where  the  lands  that  stretch  away  from  the  lake 
shores  are  almost  flat,  the  ancient  Lakes  must  have 
reached  far  inland.  This  is  true  in  western  New 
York,  northern  Ohio,  and  southern  Ontario.  And 
there  we  find  the  soils  and  subsoils  consisting  of  clays 
and  fine  silts,  that  is,  of  just  such  material  as  settles 


126  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

in  the  bottom  of  lakes  at  some  distance  from  the 
shore.  The  plowman  is  not  annoyed  by  boulders, 
and  the  farmer  finds  smooth  and  level  areas,  easy 
of  tillage  and  rich  in  production.  Transportation  is 
simple  and  inexpensive,  railways  are  easily  built,  and 
the  land  is  foreordained  to  prosperity.  Thus  have 
the  Lakes  themselves  fashioned  thousands  of  square 
miles  of  the  lands  that  lie  about  them,  spreading  their 
soils  upon  their  rocky  foundations,  and  now  bearing 
away  their  harvests  to  remote  cities.  Nor  are  the 
Lakes  without  large  influence  upon  the  climate  of  the 
region.  There  are  nearly  one  hundred  thousand 
miles  of  water  surface,  and  the  contribution  to  atmos 
pheric  moisture  through  evaporation  is  enormous. 
More  than  this,  the  Lakes  are  deep,  and  contain  six 
thousand  cubic  miles  of  water.  The  heat  that  is 
received  into  these  waters  during  the  warmer  parts 
of  the  year  is  stored  and  gradually  set  free  during 
the  autumn  and  winter,  tempering  the  atmosphere  of 
surrounding  lands.  Hence  the  fields  of  the  Iroquois 
plain  are  garnished  with  forests  of  peach  trees,  and 
vineyards  cover  the  Erie  shore  plains  of  the  Chautau- 
qua  region.  Soil  and  climate  alike  are  the  gift  of  the 
Lakes.  Those  who  live  in  the  more  southern  land 
rarely  think  of  genial  climate  in  Canada,  but  the  Lake 
region  of  the  province  of  Ontario  abounds  in  orchards 
and  raises  the  vine  in  profusion. 

We  have  approached  the  Lakes  down  the  long  lines 
of  their  physical  history  only  that  we  may  better 
know  what  they  have  meant  in  the  life  of  man  dur 
ing  the  short  centuries  since  America  was  found 
by  European  people.  When  the  devout  missionary 


THE   GREAT   LAKES  127 

and  hardy  explorer  had  ascended  the  St.  Lawrence, 
the  open  waters  would  carry  him  to  the  heart  of 
the  continent.  Or  if  he  pushed  up  the  Ottawa 
and  threaded  the  rough  forests  that  lay  toward  the 
Georgian  Bay,  he  could  bid  farewell  to  the  bouldery 
jungle,  and  paddle  his  canoe  to  the  Chicago  River, 
Green  Bay,  or  the  head  of  Lake  Superior,  and  thence 
by  easy  portages  he  could  find  his  way  into  some 
head  water  of  the  great  Mississippi.  And  when  the 
missionary  and  the  trapper  were  followed  by  the  per 
manent  settler,  forts  were  planted,  cabins  rose  on  the 
prairie  and  in  the  forest,  towns  grew  up  on  bays  and 
in  the  mouths  of  rivers,  the  towns  became  cities,  and 
the  cities  sent  fleets  of  vessels  up  and  down  these 
inland  seas,  bearing  the  grain  of  an  empire,  and  at 
length  stores  of  mineral  wealth  whose  very  existence 
was  hidden  until  our  own  time. 

No  other  inland  navigation  in  the  world  compares 
with  that  of  the  Laurentian  Lakes,  and  what  it  may 
become  in  the  century  just  begun  it  would  be  rash 
to  foretell.  Every  lake  washes  the  borders  of  rich 
lands,  and  these  lands  reach  across  the  prairies  and 
down  the  Mississippi,  over  the  plains  to  the  far  North 
west,  and  eastward  by  two  great  gateways  to  the 
Atlantic.  Most  of  the  great  railways  now  converge 
on  the  Lakes,  and  it  is  only  sober  prophecy  to  forecast 
ships  of  large  tonnage  sailing  from  the  Lakes  to  the 
Hudson  and  lower  St.  Lawrence  by  two  or  more 
routes  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Mississippi,  and  from 
Superior,  by  way  of  Winnipeg,  to  Hudson  Bay.  For 
some  of  these  the  surveys  are  complete,  and  in  at 
least  two  instances  construction  is  much  more  than 


128  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

begun.  Far  more  wonderful  would  the  present  have 
seemed  to  those  who  225  years  ago  launched  the  first 
sailing  vessel  on  the  upper  Lakes. 

The  governments,  both  of  the  United  States  and 
of  Canada,  have  not  been  slow  to  see  the  meaning 
of  the  Lakes.  As  early  as  1841  the  United  States 
Lake  Survey  was  planned,  and  its  work  carried  on 
for  forty  years.  The  character  of  the  shores,  the 
nature  of  the  bottoms,  and  the  depths  of  the  water 
were  determined  and  recorded  in  maps  which  are 
now  available  to  sailors  and  to  all.  The  work  is  sim 
ilar  to  that  of  the  United  States  Coast  Survey.  As 
with  the  ocean,  so  on  lake  borders,  conditions  change, 
bars  are  built,  bays  are  silted  up,  new  shoals  are 
found,  and  revision  of  the  older  work  has  been  found 
necessary  and  has  been  undertaken. 

From  the  head  of  Lake  Michigan,  or  of  Lake  Su 
perior,  to  the  lower  part  of  Lake  Erie,  the  shipman 
finds  nearly  one  thousand  miles  of  continuous  sailing. 
By  the  locks  on  St.  Marys  River,  and  by  dredging 
parts  of  the  channel  between  Huron  and  Erie,  vessels 
drawing  twenty  feet  of  water  can  now  make  this  voy 
age.  From  Buffalo  and  Cleveland  on  the  east  this 
great  highway,  forking  in  upper  Lake  Huron,  finds 
its  western  gate  in  Chicago,  Milwaukee,  and  Duluth. 

Down  to  the  present  time  the  lake  trade  converges 
eastward  upon  Buffalo.  Here  the  products  of  the 
West  are  transferred  to  railway  and  canal,  excepting 
those  which,  in  boats  of  moderate  draught,  go  on 
their  way  down  the  Welland  Canal  to  Lake  Ontario 
and  Montreal.  Soon  after  La  Salle  had  launched 
the  Griffon  near  by,  another  Frenchman,  Baron  La 


130  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

Honton,  saw  that  the  plain  at  the  foot  of  the  lake  had 
meaning  for  the  future,  and  a  fort  was  built.  Nearly 
a  century  later  the  British  held  the  place  and  called 
it  Fort  Erie,  and  the  commerce  of  the  Great  Lakes 
began.  The  place  was  not  known  as  Buffalo  until 
1810,  when  its  first  steamboat,  Walk-in-tJie-Water, 
went  westward.  Its  greater  development  began  in 
1825,  when  the  Erie  Canal  was  finished. 

One  hundred  and  fifty  miles  up  the  south  shore  of 
Lake  Erie  is  the  rival  port  of  the  lower  Lakes.     There 
seems  to  be,  at  first  view,  no  compelling  reason  why 
a  large  city  should  grow  where  Cleveland  is.     It  is 
not  at  the  head  or  foot  of   a  great  lake ;    it  is  not 
so  near  to  extensive  mineral  deposits  as   to   arouse 
expectation  ;  it  has,  indeed,  a  rich  farming  land  to  the 
south ;  it  is  on  the  lake  shore,  and  a  small  river,  the 
Cuyahoga,  draining  a  few  counties  of  northern  Ohio, 
enters  the  lake  here.     There  was  a  trading  post  at 
Pittsburg  and  another  at  Detroit.     The  mouth  of  the 
Cuyahoga  was  nearly  on  a  line  between  the  two,  was 
a  convenient  halting  place,  and  a  trading  post  was 
established.       In   1796,  the  Connecticut  Land  Com 
pany  sent  Moses  Cleaveland  to  survey  the  ground,  and 
his  name,  lacking  a  letter,  became  attached  to  it.     A 
/real  settlement  began  in    1797,  and  real  prosperity 
/  began,  when,  in  1834,  a  waterway,  the  Ohio  Canal, 
/  joined   the  place  with  the  Ohio  River.      No   other 
I    geographic  cause  is  so  compelling  in  the  making  of 
cities  as  a  line  of  transportation,  or,  perhaps  we  ought 
v  to  say,  the  convergence  of  such  lines. 

Cleveland  was,  for  long,  the  second  city  of  Ohio, 
springing  to  the  first  place  only  at  the  close  of  the 


THE   GREAT    LAKES  131 

last  century,  and  offering  one  example  among  others 
of  the  advantages  of  lake  and  seaports  as  compared 
with  river  towns.  Fifty  years  ago  a  trivial  consign 
ment  of  iron  ore  was  here  received  from  Lake  Supe 
rior.  Nobody  heard  of  it,  or  if  it  was  known,  it  stirred 
no  thought.  But  Cleveland  was  not,  after  all,  so  re 
moved  from  the  treasures  of  the  under  earth.  Coal 
was  mining  in  the  Mahoning  Valley,  on  the  east  bor 
der  of  the  state.  It  was  coming  to  Cleveland ;  and 
later,  also,  more  ore  was  brought  and  coal  was  made 
to  smelt  the  iron.  At  length,  also,  the  trail  between 
trading  posts  had  become  a  railway,  and  Pittsburg 
and  Cleveland  had  been  made  neighbors.  There  was 
unlimited  coal  about  Pittsburg,  and  the  ore,  coming  in 
vast  shiploads  through  the  deepened  canal  of  St. 
Marys  River,  was  swiftly  transferred  at  Cleveland 
and  sent  to  the  city  of  furnaces.  Meantime  oil  and 
gas  developed,  pipe-lines  were  run  down  from  the  oil 
fields,  and  Cleveland  became  the  greatest  of  petroleum 
centers.  East  and  west  along  the  lake  shore  run  the  / 
transcontinental  railways  ;  and  so  it  turns  out  that  the 
little  valley  of  the  Cuyahoga  River  is  at  the  crossing 
of  two  of  the  greatest  highways  in  America. 

Detroit,  named  from  the  narrow  water  passage 
between  Huron  and  Erie,  is,  in  its  name,  a  lasting 
memorial  of  French  discovery  and  early  occupation. 
There  were  earlier  posts  on  the  Lakes  above,  but 
Cadillac  had  the  sagacity  to  see  that  the  fur  trade 
could  best  be  centered  and  controlled  where  Detroit 
now  is.  He  returned  to  France,  convinced  the 
ministry  of  his  wisdom,  and  gained  a  grant  of  land, 
"  wherever  on  the  Detroit  (strait)  the  new  fort  should 


132  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

be  established."  The  settlement  came  into  English 
possession  in  1762,  was  held  by  the  British  for  a  time 
in  the  War  of  1812,  and  had  become  by  1818  a  popu 
lous  and  lively  community.  Eight  years  before,  Walk- 
in-the-  Water  had  sailed  from  Buffalo,  and  now  lake 
commerce  was  becoming  large,  and  a  more  settled 
and  refined  life  was  mingling  with  the  rougher  ele 
ments  of  the  frontier. 

For  through  commerce  on  the  Lakes  Detroit  would 
be  but  a  calling-place,  and  we  must  not  overlook  the 
essential  part  which  the  railway  has  had  in  her 
growth.  The  great  east  and  west  highways  must 
go  either  north  or  south  of  Lake  Erie.  Those  that 
run  north  of  the  lake  cross  the  river  at  Detroit  and, 
entering  Canada,  divide  in  like  manner  upon  Lake 
Ontario.  Here,  then,  as  in  Cleveland,  we  have  a 
crossing  of  the  ways,  and  here  also  must  converge 
the  more  local  lines  of  railway  which  serve  the  South 
ern  peninsula  and  carry  its  traffic  to  the  South  and 
East. 

The  greatest  of  lake  ports  is  not  at  the  head  of 
Lake  Michigan,  but  nearly  twenty  miles  north,  on 
the  western  shore.  Chicago  is  determined  by  the 
same  cause  that  guided  Joliet  and  Marquette,  La 
Salle  and  Hennepin,  when  they  sojourned  in  this 
region,  or  sought  the  sources  of  the  Mississippi. 
Here  an  insignificant  river  enters  the  lake,  and  its 
short  courses  lead  to  the  pass  whose  history  lies  in 
the  geological  past,  and  whose  importance  to  man  is 
now  beginning  to  be  seen.  And  yet  upon  this  stream, 
by  dredging  and  by  building  docks,  forty-one  miles 
of  frontage  have  been  made  available,  and  the  har- 


THE   GREAT    LAKES 


borage  outside  has  been  extended  by  breakwater 
construction,  until  fleets  can  anchor  here,  where  two 
generations  ago  a  small  town  lay  along  a  straight 
shore-line  and  on  two  sides  of  a  shallow,  muddy,  and 
unknown  river.  It  is  now  ninety-nine  years  since  the 
first  permanent  white  settlers  occupied  Chicago,  and 


FIG.  26.     Shipping  in  the  Chicago  River.     Photograph  by  Wm.  H. 
Rau,  Philadelphia. 

the  civilian  population  was  barely  a  hundred  in  1830. 
In  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  Chicago 
increased  her  population  by  fifty-four  per  cent  and  has 
in  tile  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century  nearly  two 
millions  of  people.  This  was  due  in  no  measure  to 
local  conditions,  for  her  harbor  had  to  be  created 
and  the  very  ground  raised  from  a  swamp.  The 
greatness  of  Chicago  is  due  to  its  general  geographic 


F34  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

relations  and  to  the  combination,  as  with  Cleveland 
and  Detroit,  of  railway  and  water  transportation. 

From  the  prairies,  the  plains,  and  the  passes  of  the 
northern  Rocky  Mountains,  the  railway  lines  must 
round  the  head  of  Lake  Michigan.  All  passers 
between  East  and  West  must  pay  tribute  here. 
Traffic  from  the  Southwest  is  drawn  to  the  Lakes, 
and  all  lines  from  the  farther  Northwest  must  come 
down  to  Chicago.  Whatever  diversions  may  occur  at 
Duluth  or  along  Canadian  lines  of  railway,  they  can 
not  injure  the  lake  metropolis,  though  they  may  in 
some  ways  check  its  rate  of  expansion. 

Milwaukee  compares  in  an  interesting  way  with  its 
greater  neighbor.  Its  natural  advantages  of  immedi 
ate  environment  are  far  greater :  a  good  harbor,  fine 
;  rising  ground  for  her  streets  and  buildings,  and  a 
:  river  for  water-power.  She  is  also  favored  by  being 
the  center  of  interest  and  the  capital  of  a  great  com 
monwealth  ;  but  not  all  of  these  gains  can  counter 
balance  the  relations  which  Chicago  holds  to  the 
entire  country.  Like  Chicago,  Milwaukee  bears  an 
Indian  name,  but  like  the  greater  city  also  the 
French  explorers  led  the  way,  and  the  first  white  set 
tler  upon  Milwaukee  Bay,  in  1817,  bore  the  name  of 
Juneau.  But  no  one  thinks  of  France  to-day  when 
he  enters,  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  one  of  the 
greatest  of  German-American  cities. 

The  cold  and  abundant  waters  that  flow  out  of 
Lake  Superior  encounter  a  tough  sill  of  ancient  rocks, 
over  which,  in  foaming  rapids,  they  leap  down  to 
enter  the  expanse  of  Lake  Huron.  Lake  Superior 
could  have  little  more  than  local  commerce  until  this 


136  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

obstacle  was  overcome.  As  she  is  surrounded,  not 
by  prairies  yielding  grain  and  fruit,  but  by  rough  and 
rocky  lands,  bearing  forests  on  their  slopes  and  min 
eral  wealth  beneath  their  scanty  soils  and  bare  ledges, 
exchange  becomes  imperative,  for  no  region  of  two  or 
three  resources,  however  rich,  can  live  to  itself.  The 
governor  of  Michigan  saw  the  need  as  long  ago  as 
1837  and  stirred  the  legislature  to  its  task.  Baffled 
for  many  years  by  conservative  influences  in  the 
national  government,  necessity  won  at  last,  and  a 
canal  was  finished  in  1853.  It  was  twelve  feet  deep, 
and  its  completion  made  possible  a  continuous  passage 
from  the  head  of  Lake  Superior  to  Buffalo.  In  a  few 
years  enlargement  was  needed,  and  the  national  gov 
ernment  took  up  the  work.  The  deepening  of  the  locks 
and  of  the  approaching  channels  to  seventeen  feet 
was  not  enough,  and  the  depth  has  now  been  carried  to 
twenty-one  feet.  Similar  works  have  been  completed 
by  the  Canadian  government  within  a  dozen  years, 
and  the  tonnage  that  passes  this  gateway  is  stated 
in  figures  that  baffle  comprehension.  That  of  the 
Suez  Canal  is  light  in  comparison  with  it ;  and  where 
small  cargoes  fifty  years  ago  were  laboriously  carried 
around  the  rapids,  a  vessel  of  eight  thousand  tons, 
having  on  board  the  product  of  eleven  thousand  acres 
of  wheat,  or  a  cargo  of  iron  ore,  passes  in  a  few 
moments.  But  little  of  the  water  of  Superior  is 
needed  for  the  locks,  and  power  canals  have  been 
built  on  the  American  and  on  the  Canadian  side  of 
the  river.  The  iron,  nickel,  and  other  minerals  of  the 
region  have  been  developed,  and  a  railway  projected 
to  Hudson  Bay  to  open  within  a  few  years  the  lum- 


THE    GREAT    LAKES  137 

her,  grain,  minerals,  and  fish  of  that  northern  region. 
Varied  manufactures  and  a  route  of  traffic  must  here 
build  up  one  more  of  the  great  centers  of  the  Lake 
region. 

Not  least  of  these  will  be  the  head  of  Lake  Supe 
rior.  Historic  time  in  this  domain  is  so  short  that 
prophecy  swiftly  leads  one  on  from  the  brief  records 
of  the  past.  On  the  steep  slopes  rising  from  the 
chilling  waters  of  the  lake  is  Duluth,  another  memo 
rial  of  early  French  occupation.  We  might  better 
say  visitation,  for  Captain  Jean  DuLuth,  in  1760,  only 
built  a  hut,  and  it  was  more  than  a  century  later 
when  a  city  was  chartered  here.  Though  not  yet  one 
of  the  greatest  cities,  it  is  already  one  of  the  greatest 
ports  of  the  Lakes,  and  no  limit  can  be  placed  to  its 
possible  unfolding.  Here  is  the  focal  point  for  the 
grain  of  Minnesota,  the  Dakotas,  and  the  vast  north 
west  provinces  of  Canada.  When  deeper  waterways 
shall  have  been  dug  eastward  from  the  Lakes,  there 
will  be  no  breaking  of  bulk  between  Duluth  and  New 
York,  Liverpool,  or  Hamburg.  The  head  of  Lake 
Superior  is  five  hundred  miles  nearer  to  the  grain- 
growing  empire  of  the  Northwest  than  is  Chicago,  and 
the  result  is  inevitable.  Here,  too,  within  a  few  score 
miles  are  the  largest  iron-ore  beds  known  in  America. 
And  most  of  the  ore  lies,  not  in  deeply  buried  veins, 
but  close  to  the  surface,  making  it  possible  to  mine  it 
with  steam  shovels  in  open  pits,  into  which  railway 
tracks  are  carried,  and  from  which  the  loaded,  cars 
are  run  down  to  the  docks  at  Duluth  and  in  its  neigh 
borhood,  there  to  transfer  their  loads  to  the  lake 
vessels.  It  reaches  its  destination  in  Cleveland  or 


138  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

Pittsburg  at  a  trivial  cost  which  has  made  possible 
the  enormous  development  of  iron  and  steel  in  recent 
years.  Added  to  the  iron  ranges  of  Minnesota  are 
the  great  stores  of  iron  and  native  copper  in  the 
northern  peninsula  of  Michigan,  and  the  lumber  of 
Michigan,  northern  Wisconsin,  and  the  adjacent  parts 
of  Canada.  We  shall  not  forget  that  other  ports 
on  the  Lakes  —  Ashland,  Marquette,  Port  Huron, 
Toledo,  and  many  others  —  are  great  in  commerce, 
being  overshadowed  somewhat  by  their  larger  rivals. 
It  has  often  been  said  that  the  great  cities  are 
made  by  railroads.  This  is  the  more  plausible  be 
cause  shallow  waterways,  like  the  Erie  Canal,  have 
lost  their  importance.  But  the  railway  can  never 
displace  the  deep  waterway  in  carrying  other  than 
perishable  freight.  We  may,  therefore,  look  forward 
to  enormous  extension  of  traffic  of  the  Great  Lakes 
through  the  ship  canals  of  the  future.  One  of  these 
will  open  the  way  from  Lake  Erie  to  New  York 
Harbor.  By  an  act  of  1897  tne  United  States  govern 
ment  undertook  an  investigation  of  routes  for  water 
ways  between  the  Lakes  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and 
an  elaborate  report  of  the  engineers  was  transmitted 
to  Congress  in  1900.  Should  this  report  lead  to 
action,  it  is  proposed  to  pass  from  the  Niagara  River 
above  the  Falls  to  Lake  Ontario,  either  by  a  route 
close  to  the  river,  and  entering  it  again  at  Lewiston, 
or  by  a  line  a  few  miles  to  the  eastward.  From  Lake 
Ontario  to  the  Hudson  alternative  routes  are  pro 
posed,  one  by  Oswego  and  the  Mohawk  Valley,  the 
other  by  the  St.  Lawrence,  Lake  Champlain,  and 
eastern  New  York.  To  accomplish  such  a  plan  will 


140  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

go  far  to  perpetuate  and  increase  the  commercial 
superiority  of  New  York  City. 

Within  a  few  years  the  Canadian  government  has 
completed  its  great  project  of  cutting  a  fourteen-foot 
waterway  from  Lake  Erie  to  tide-water,  by  way  of 
the  Welland  Canal,  and  by  passing  around  the  vari 
ous  impracticable  sections  of  the  St.  Lawrence  River. 
These  channels  have  a  total  length  of  nearly  seventy- 
five  miles.  Other  schemes  have  been  proposed  which 
in  the  end  may  mean  much  to  this  growing  northern 
empire.  A  canal  from  Georgian  Bay  to  the  navigable 
waters  of  the  Ottawa  River  would  give  direct  passage 
from  Chicago  and  Duluth  to  Montreal  and  Liverpool. 
If  a  map  be  consulted,  it  will  be  found  that  a  line 
from  Georgian  Bay  to  Montreal  is  one  side  of  a  tri 
angle,  whose  remaining  sides  must  be  traversed  by 
vessels  taking  the  Port  Huron  route.  This  proposed 
waterway  has  almost  romantic  interest  because 
through  it  passed  the  waters  of  the  upper  Lakes 
at  the  close  of  the  glacial  period.  As  railways  look 
back  to  ancestral  trails  of  savages  or  wild  beasts,  so 
this  plan  of  navigation  recalls  a  yet  more  distant  era. 

The  Chicago  Drainage  Canal  was  not  cut  across 
the  prairie  for  a  single  end.  Already  it  disposes  of 
the  sewage  and  secures  greater  purity  of  the  lake 
water-supply,  but  its  twenty-eight  miles  of  channel, 
cut  broad  and  deep  through  the  drift  and  solid  rock, 
are  to  be  the  first  link  in  a  waterway  that  shall  pass 
through  the  Illinois  River  to  the  Mississippi  and  join 
the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Gulf.  This  means  unhindered 
communication  between  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  and 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  It  means  more  than  this ;  for 


THE   GREAT    LAKES  141 

when  the  Isthmian  Canal  has  been  built,  direct 
freight  service  can  be  had,  for  exchange  of  all  the 
products  of  the  Northwest,  with  the  Western  coast 
of  America  and  the  entire  Orient.  Then  the  dreams 
of  explorers  will  be  more  than  fulfilled.  They  sought 
the  East  by  way  of  the  Great  Lakes,  and  their  de 
scendants  of  the  twentieth  century  will  have  found 
the  way.  No  distant  future  may  see  Minneapolis 
sending  its  flour  in  shiploads  to  Duluth  and  the  East ; 
for  a  route  has  already  been  surveyed.  From  Su 
perior  to  Lake  Winnipeg;  from  the  Mississippi  and 
Minnesota  rivers  to  the  Red  River  of  the  North ;  and 
from  Lake  Winnipeg  to  Hudson  Bay,  —  these  are 
among  the  possible  triumphs  of  the  future.  Pitts- 
burg  and  Lake  Erie  will  be  joined,  Niagara  will 
merge  with  Buffalo  as  the  industrial  center  of  North 
America,  the  agricultural  riches  of  the  Northwest 
and  of  the  arid  lands  will  have  been  developed,  and 
the  adjustment  of  human  life  to  its  North  American 
environment  will  enter  upon  an  advanced  stage.  It 
has  been  no  part  of  the  present  plan  to  give  the  sta 
tistics  of  Great  Lake  commerce,  but  rather  to  show 
some  of  the  laws  and  centers  of  its  growth.  If, 
however,  we  remember  that  the  tonnage  (not  the 
value)  of  Cleveland  lake  traffic  has  sometimes  sur 
passed  that  of  Liverpool,  and  that  the  Detroit  River, 
in  the  seven  open  months,  exceeds  the  import  and 
export  tonnage  of  our  Atlantic  and  Pacific  ports  com 
bined,  we  shall  find  that  the  largest  expectations  of 
the  coming  half-century  are  sober  and  reasonable. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE    PRAIRIE    COUNTRY 

WE  are  beginning  to  see  that  geographic  prov 
inces  cannot  be  sharply  denned.  The  Appalachian 
barrier  grades  down  to  the  coastal  plain  through 
the  Piedmont  Hills,  and  on  the  west  the  Alleghany 
plateau  slopes  to  the  level  of  the  prairies.  So  when 
we  say  prairie  country,  we  mean  the  great  northern 
central  land,  whose  most  characteristic  phase  is 
prairie :  and  yet  Ohio  and  Indiana  are  but  in  a  small 
way  prairie  states.  Illinois  and  Iowa  are  the  typical 
regions,  and  we  include  roughly  the  lands  lying  around 
them  :  southern  Minnesota  and  Wisconsin,  northern 
Missouri,  and  the  states  west  of  the  Missouri  River, 
so  far  as  they  are  well  enough  watered  to  grow  crops 
freely  without  irrigation.  From  the  uplands  of  Wis 
consin  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio,  and  from  the  state 
of  Ohio  well  into  Nebraska,  lies  the  land  to  which  we 
turn.  It  is  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley,  shorn,  how 
ever,  of  two  great  regions  :  one  about  the  head  waters 
of  the  Ohio,  and  the  other  stretching  far  along  the 
upper  Missouri.  The  former  belongs  to  the  Alle 
ghany  plateau,  and  the  latter  to  the  Great  Plains  and 
the  Rocky  Mountains.  But  we  cannot  draw  a  line 
between  the  prairie  and  those  flat  lands  that  surround 
the  Lakes  and  once  formed  part  of  their  bottoms. 

142 


THE    PRAIRIE    COUNTRY  143 

Into  this  great  open  land  civilized  man  might 
come  by  several  doorways,  and  two  of  them  were 
equally  open  and  inviting.  One  would  have  led  the 
explorer  up  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  Spaniard 
looked  in  at  this  door,  —  indeed,  he  entered  it,  and 
camped  just  within ;  but  he  found  no  gold,  and  thus 
he  carried  his  trails  and  left  the  tokens  of  his  language 
among  the  mountains  and  plateaus  of  the  distant 
Southwest.  How  blind  he  was  to  the  seat  of  empire, 
we  need  no  special  wisdom  now  to  see.  He  would 
cede  it  to  his  northern  neighbor,  and  it  would  by  and 
by  be  sold  for  a  few  paltry  millions  of  dollars. 

The  Frenchman  came  in  at  the  other  open  door, 
along  the  Laurentian  waters.  Armed  with  triple  mo 
tive,  —  love  of  adventure,  the  gospel  of  his  faith,  and 
zeal  for  the  gains  of  peltry,  —  he  made  the  Mississippi 
Valley  for  the  time  his  own.  If  these  motives  were 
mingled  in  some,  they  burned  singly  and  with  pure 
flame  in  others.  If  there  were  hypocrites  among 
true  and  suffering  heralds  of  the  faith,  there  were 
men  also  mingled  with  the  scoundrels  that  bartered 
pelts  with  the  savages  and  threw  off  the  bonds  of 
decent  society  in  the  wilds  of  the  forest.  With  the 
mixed  motives  of  common  human  nature,  but  always 
with  daring,  the  prairie  country  was  crossed  from 
north  to  south  and  from  east  to  west. 

It  marked  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  New 
World  when  Joliet  and  Marquette  pushed  their  little 
craft  up  the  Fox  River,  toward  those  head  waters  from 
which,  by  a  short  portage,  they  should  go  over  to  the 
Wisconsin.  When  their  canoe  was  launched  again, 
the  Mississippi  Valley  was  won ;  for  they  needed 


144  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

but  to  give  themselves  to  the  current,  to  pass  the 
Missouri,  the  Ohio,  and  the  Arkansas,  and  to  have 
sailed  out  into  the  Gulf,  had  not  the  risks  seemed  too 
great,  among  swarms  of  hostile  natives.  Having  run 
by  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas,  they  turned  against 
the  current,  but  entered,  as  they  returned,  the  Illinois 
River,  found  it  easy  to  overcome  its  sluggish  flow, 
and  came  back  to  Green  Bay  by  the  portage  at  the 
head  of  Lake  Michigan. 


FIG.  29.     Bridge  across  the  Mississippi  at  St.  Louis 


It  remained  for  La  Salle  to  assert  with  larger  confi 
dence,  and  by  the  warrant  of  more  remote  journey- 
ings,  the  rights  of  his  king  in  the  Mississippi  country, 
a  drainage  basin  which  perhaps  seems  more  vast  to  us 
who  know,  than  to  the  explorer  who  was  living  in  the 
shadowy  realm  of  the  imagination.  When  La  Salle 
had  returned  to  Paris,  he  was  fully  awake  to  the  need 
of  possessing  and  fortifying  the  new  realm,  and  said, 
in  almost  prophetic  language,  "  Should  foreigners  an 
ticipate  us,  they  will  complete  the  ruin  of  New  France, 


THE   PRAIRIE   COUNTRY  145 

which  they  already  hem  in  by  their  establishments  of 
Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  New  England,  and  Hudson's 
Bay."  Several  years  before,  having  visited  the  Illi 
nois  country,  he  drew  a  picture  of  the  prairies  which 
may  in  some  points  serve  as  well  to-day  :  "  So  beauti 
ful  and  so  fertile ;  so  free  from  forests,  and  so  full  of 
meadows,  brooks,  and  rivers ;  so  abounding  in  fish, 
game,  and  venison,  that  one  can  find  there  in  plenty, 
and  with  little  trouble,  all  that  is  needful  for  the 
support  of  nourishing  colonies."  Indeed  the  empire 
would  be  built  and  the  meadows  would  be  made  pop 
ulous,  but  the  founders  of  states  would  come  neither 
by  the  Lakes  nor  the  Gulf,  —  they  would  hew  their 
way  across  the  mountains. 

It  was  in  1682  that  La  Salle  completed  the  discov 
ery  of  the  lower  Mississippi  and  gave  name  to  the 
Louisiana  country.  By  the  beginning  of  the  next 
century  settlements  were  made.  One  of  the  French 
centers  of  population  was  at  Detroit,  another  was  at 
Vincennes  in  the  lower  Wabash  country,  on  the  east 
ern,  or  what  is  now  the  Indiana,  side  of  the  river ;  and 
the  farthest  outpost  of  all  was  about  Kaskaskia,  in 
the  river  region  between  Cairo  and  St.  Louis.  Here 
and  on  the  Wabash  gathered  several  thousand  French 
colonists.  They  were  not  state  builders,  as  La  Salle 
might  have  hoped,  but  lived  in  easy  fashion,  bartering 
furs,  rearing  their  half-breed  children,  and  tilling 
patches  of  the  soil  in  their  occasional  hours  of  indus 
try.  We  are  not  concerned  with  their  story  save  to 
see  how  they  passed,  with  the  fall  of  Quebec,  under 
British  rule,  so  to  remain  until  the  close  of  the  Revo 
lution.  Here,  for  a  short  period,  was  a  population  of 


146  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

French  and  of  savages,  governed  by  a  foreign  king, 
who  was  alien  to  both,  and  bitterly  hostile  to  the 
growth  of  his  rebellious  seaboard  colonies,  as  they 
pushed  into  the  land  north  of  the  Ohio.  Against 
this  triangular  and  unnatural  union  of  vacillating  Cre 
oles,  savage  aborigines,  and  wilful  king,  were  pitted 
the  backwoodsmen  of  Kentucky. 

These  hardy  souls  we  have  met  before,  as  they 
colonized  the  valleys  and  threaded  the  passes  of  the 
Appalachians.  They  had  not  learned  to  use  with 
slack  hand  the  ax  and  the  rifle.  They  could  travel 
light,  follow  a  trail  like  a  savage,  and  shoot  sure. 
They  took  pride  in  snuffing  a  candle  or  driving  a  nail 
with  a  bullet,  and  two  of  them,  not  the  best  or  noblest 
of  their  kind,  are  said  to  have  amused  themselves 
and  shown  their  confidence  in  each  other's  skill,  by 
placing  a  tin  cup  full  of  whiskey  on  the  head,  and 
allowing  the  other,  at  a  range  of  seventy  yards,  to 
puncture  it. 

The  shadowy  claims  of  Virginia  and  other  colonies 
to  this  old  Northwest  counted  for  nothing  against 
actual  possession  by  British  forts  and  British  com 
manders,  and  the  land  had  to  be  won  by  successful 
war.  In  planting  the  settlements  on  the  Kentucky 
and  the  Cumberland,  Boone,  Robertson,  and  the  men 
and  women  who  toiled  and  fought  with  them,  had 
opened  the  way  for  the  prairie  realm  of  the  future. 
They  were  to  win  it  against  all  odds,  while  nations 
that  approached  it  by  other  highways  were  to  stand 
aside,  and  thus  to  bring  fresh  proof  that  geographic 
opportunity  does  not  of  necessity  control. 

It  is  here  that  we  meet  the  surveyor,  frontiersman, 


THE    PRAIRIE    COUNTRY  147 

and  soldier,  George  Rogers  Clark.  There  is  no  finer 
story  of  frontier  history  than  his.  A  Virginian  by 
birth,  a  Kentuckian  by  adoption,  he  saw  the  prob 
lem  of  the  Northwest,  and  went  back  to  Virginia  to 
arouse  the  government  of  his  native  state.  From 
Patrick  Henry,  the  governor,  he  received  a  Godspeed ; 
but  there  was  little  more  for  the  exhausted  colony  to 
give.  Almost  with  single  hand  he  raised  a  little 
force,  cook  it  down  the  Ohio,  surprised  Kaskaskia, 
won  the  French  by  his  kindness  and  the  savages  by 
his  union  of  fairness  and  defiance ;  marched  through 
cold  floods,  often  breast  deep,  to  Vincennes,  and  com 
pelled  its  English  commander  with  superior  force  to 
surrender,  —  this  is,  in  brief,  the  dramatic  story. 
Every  advance  of  the  Middle  West  in  population,  in 
wealth,  and  in  public  achievement  should  add  to  the 
fame  of  this  simple,  rough  man  of  illimitable  per 
sonal  force.  His  work  made  it  easy  for  the  new 
government  to  claim  and  hold,  in  the  final  treaties, 
the  country  north  of  the  Ohio  River  and  south  of  the 
Lakes,  where  now  are  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michi 
gan,  and  Wisconsin.  It  was,  for  purposes  of  conquest 
and  occupancy,  a  geographical  unit ;  it  could  not  be 
divided,  and  the  winning  of  it  was  essential  to  the 
winning  also  of  the  Northwest  that  lay  beyond,  and 
of  the  great  Southwest. 

Such,  in  its  outlines,  had  been  the  history  down  to 
the  beginning  of  those  decades  following  the  Revolu 
tion,  when  the  great  rush  of  the  people  westward  was 
filling  the  prairie  lands  with  homes  and  permanent 
institutions.  Before  we  follow  these  throngs  along 
their  line  of  march,  or  see  how  they  adjusted  their 


148  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

life  to  their  new  surroundings,  we  must  observe  these 
geographic  conditions  as  carefully  as  we  may,  and 
we  will  ask  the  reader  to  note  again  the  extent  and 
borders  of  the  land. 

Ohio  on  the  east  is  scarcely  upland,  nor  is  it  low 
land,  having  an  average  altitude  of  between  eight 
hundred  and  nine  hundred  feet.  We  may  think  of  it 
as  the  Alleghany  plateau  gently  declining  to  the  west, 
or  as  the  Mississippi  plains  rising  on  the  east.  It 
has  exceedingly  smooth  lake  plains  on  the  north  and 
northwest,  and  a  line  of  low  divides,  running  north  of 
the  middle  of  the  state,  turns  the  streams  to  Lake 
Erie  and  the  Ohio  River.  These  streams  occupy 
valleys  sunk  well  down  into  the  low  plateau.  Ohio 
is  not  a  prairie  state  ;  for  she  never  had  more  than 
small  areas  of  open,  treeless  meadow,  to  which  this 
name  is  given.  Almost  the  whole  state  was  origi 
nally  covered  with  forests  of  walnut,  beech,  maple, 
buckeye,  chestnut,  ash,  and  hickory. 

In  type  of  surface  Indiana  is  much  like  Ohio,  with 
large  areas  in  the  east  and  south,  of  low  plateau, 
eight  hundred  to  more  than  one  thousand  feet  in 
altitude,  deeply  dissected  by  valleys  leading  to  the 
Ohio  and  the  Wabash.  In  the  central  and  north 
western  areas  the  ground  is  lower  and  often  a  true 
plain,  but,  except  about  one-eighth  of  the  state,  is 
not  a  prairie,  any  more  than  Ohio,  and  was  largely 
covered  in  early  days  with  heavy  and  luxuriant 
forests,  mainly  of  a  hardwood  type. 

Illinois  is  prairie,  for  here  La  Salle  found  the  open 
meadows  with  rank  herbage  and  deep  black  soil,  with 
shallow  valleys  and  sluggish  rivers,  which  belong  to 


THE   PRAIRIE   COUNTRY 


149 


=[  w 
? 


the  name.  Nor  are 
trees  absent,  but  as  a 
rule  they  border  the 
rivers,  growing  upon 
their  flood  plains  and 
fringing  their  banks 
with  sprawling  roots  %  3' 
and  overhanging  foli-  i  5 

age.     If  we  cross  the    £  § 

®  1 1 
Mississippi  River,  Iowa  Tj>  o 

is  much  like  Illinois,  %  %. 
for  these,  more  than  all  era  £' 
others,  are  the  prairie  jf  |f 
states. 

We     will     not     vex 
ourselves      with      the 
unanswered     question, 
whether  the  forestless 
condition   was   due   to 
Indian  burnings,  or  to 
qualities     of     soil     or 
climate,  for  it  is  more    P°  \ 
to  our  purpose  to  see    g  ^ 
how    the     lands    were    p  | 
ready    for    the     plow,    §•  _ 
were    suited    to    rapid 
occupation,    and    were        g 
overswept  by  waves  of        £ 
human  life  in  a  small       g 
fraction    of    the    time 
required  to  clear  the  forests  and  grub  among  the 
boulders  of  the  New  England  uplands. 


5  P 

O      P 

^  | 

^  |. 


. 
I  g- 


150  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

When  we  have  crossed  the  Mississippi  River  at 
about  five  hundred  feet  above  the  sea,  we  begin  to 
rise  again,  and  in  central  and  northwestern  Iowa 
find  ourselves  more  than  one  thousand  feet  in  alti 
tude.  If  we  cross  the  Missouri  into  Nebraska,  we 
rise  still  more,  on  the  gentle,  prolonged  incline  that 
will  take  us  up  to  the  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
As  we  approach  the  central  portions  of  Nebraska 
the  rainfall  decreases,  and  the  cornfields  give  way  to 
less  luxuriant  pasture  lands.  Here,  in  a  rough  way, 
we  may  say  that  the  prairies  end.  There  is  no 
change  in  the  forms  of  the  land,  but  only  a  change 
in  climatic  condition.  Thus  we  see  how  difficult  it 
is  to  bound  geographic  areas ;  and  yet  the  geogra 
pher  is  right  in  distinguishing  the  Alleghany  plateau, 
the  prairies,  and  the  Great  Plains.  But  the  language 
made  necessary  by  usage  is  misleading.  Ohio  stands 
less  than  a  thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  but  it  is  dis 
sected  by  valleys  and  joined  to  higher  areas  on 
the  east,  and  we  call  it  plateau.  The  arid  region, 
beginning  in  central  Nebraska  and  Kansas,  is  three 
thousand  feet  and  upward  in  altitude,  but  is  little 
dissected,  and  is  called  the  Great  Plains.  We  may 
better  follow,  however,  the  newer  name,  High  Plains. 
If  it  were  not  pedantic,  we  could  say  the  undissected 
plateau  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  prairies 
again  are  always  rather  smooth  lands,  with  shallow 
valleys,  but  some  are  lower  and  some  are  higher, 
while  the  name  especially  denotes  watered  and  fertile 
areas  in  the  forestless  condition.  Thus  we  have,  in 
outline,  an  east  and  west  profile  of  the  central  Missis 
sippi  region. 


THE   PRAIRIE   COUNTRY  151 

Missouri,  to  a  line  somewhat  south  of  its  great 
river,  is  much  like  the  adjoining  parts  of  Iowa. 
Using  our  definition  of  prairies,  as  a  flat  country, 
nearly  forestless,  but  well  enough  watered  for  agri 
culture,  we  may  carry  the  belt  through  southwestern 
Wisconsin,  and  across  southern  and  western  Minne 
sota  and  the  eastern  Dakotas. 

Over  all  this  region,  from  Ohio  into  Nebraska  and 
from  the  Ohio  River  through  Minnesota,  the  Missis 
sippi  River  holds  sway.  The  single  exceptions  are 
the  Lake  slopes  of  the  Ohio  River  states,  and  the 
valley  of  the  Red  River  of  the  North.  In  its  drain 
age,  therefore,  the  region  has  unity.  It  is  a  surface 
also  beneath  which  lie,  everywhere,  sheets  of  ancient 
sandstone,  limestone,  and  shale,  referred  by  the  geol 
ogist  to  the  Paleozoic  era.  Rarely  are  these  beds 
disturbed,  or  in  any  way  modified,  except  by  the  slow 
changes  that  have  consolidated  the  muds  into  hard 
rocks,  and  raised  them  by  continental  movements  a 
few  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  Long- 
continued  denudation  has  stripped  away  the  upper 
sheets  to  an  unknown  degree,  and  planed  the  rocks 
down  to  the  strata  that  remain,  and  over  which  the 
products  of  rock  decay  and  the  glacial  waste  have 
been  deposited.  Thus  the  character  and  structure  of 
the  foundation  rocks  also  lend  unity  to  the  region. 

All  New  England  shows  the  effects  of  glaciation. 
This  is  true  also  of  most  of  the  lands  with  which  we 
are  now  concerned,  but  with  this  important  difference, 
that  here  the  glacial  sheets  accomplished  their  wear 
and  spread  their  waste  upon  a  comparatively  even 
surface.  Some  very  smooth  lands  in  Iowa,  Illinois, 


152  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

and  in  northern  Indiana  and  Ohio,  are  made  so  by 
the  even  spreading,  under  the  ice  sheet,  of  a  thick 
bed  of  till,  or  boulder  clay,  which  is  the  most  wide 
spread  deposit  of  a  great  glacier.  Often,  too,  the  ice 
front  lay  along  a  smooth  surface,  and  the  streams 
flowing  from  it  were  sluggish,  and  wandered  hither 
and  thither,  interlocking  with  each  other,  and  build 
ing  up  wide-spreading  aprons  of  washed  clays  and 
sands.  Frequently,  where  the  ice  front  lay  for  a 
long  time,  belts  of  hills,  or  terminal  moraines,  were 
formed,  and  now  stand  as  the  most  conspicuous  re 
liefs  of  a  flat  and  often  monotonous  country.  In 
parts  of  southern  Iowa  and  northern  Missouri  the 
glacial  cover  is  a  clayey  loam,  with  a  peculiar  vertical 
cleavage,  and  known  as  loess,  similar  to  formations 
found  in  the  Rhine  Valley  and  in  interior  China.  By 
the  glacial  and  associated  deposits,  the  till  and  sands, 
the  waterlaid  clays  and  the  loess,  the  bed  rocks  may  be 
completely  mantled  over  for  long  distances,  giving 
the  particularly  smooth  and  unrelieved  aspect  of  much 
of  the  prairie  region. 

But  in  these  spreading  mantles  of  rock  waste,  we 
find  the  secret  of  the  soils.  They  have  not  lain  on 
steep  slopes  of  hill  or  mountain,  where  their  finest 
and  most  available  nutritive  materials  were  washed 
away  into  the  sea,  but  all  the  gains  of  weathering  and 
vegetable  accumulations  have  been  hoarded  through 
the  thousands  or  tens  of  thousands  of  years  of  post 
glacial  time.  As  the  surfaces  were  relatively  smooth 
before  the  ice  swept  in,  there  was  less  plucking  and 
dropping  of  large  stones  and  boulders,  and  hence 
these  do  not,  as  in  rougher  glacial  lands,  dissipate  the 


THE   PRAIRIE   COUNTRY  153 

strength  of  the  plowman  and  the  harvester.  Nor  is 
energy  consumed  in  tilling  steep  hillsides.  We 
have  already  had  reason  to  see  that  the  drainage  of 
the  Great  Lakes  once  went  down  the  St.  Croix,  the 
Wisconsin,  the  Illinois,  and  the  Wabash  rivers,  and 
that  the  Ohio  River  is  far  other  than  it  was  before 
the  ice  invasion.  Important  changes,  too,  were 
wrought  in  the  upper  Mississippi. 

A  most  surprising  fact  about  the  ice  sheets  was 
that  none  of  them  covered  southwestern  Wisconsin. 
Here  is  a  region,  ten  thousand  miles  in  area,  which  is 
like  the  Blue  Grass  region  of  Kentucky,  or  like  any 
other  region  outside  of  the  glacial  belt,  in  showing 
none  of  the  characteristic  proofs  of  glacial  action. 
Its  soils  are  not  made  from  the  drift,  but  by  the  decay 
of  the  underlying  rock,  while  the  ice  sheets  closed 
completely  around  it  in  Iowa  and  Illinois.  It  is  not 
proved,  however,  that  the  ice  was  all  around  it  at 
the  same  time.  There  may  have  been  successive  en 
croachments,  now  on  the  east,  and  now  on  the  west, 
of  the  "driftless  area." 

It  is  known  that  some  areas  of  original  prairie  have 
been  reforested  in  Indiana  since  occupation  by  the 
white  man  began.  It  appears  also  that  some  districts 
in  Kentucky  had  been  brought  to  the  prairie  condi 
tion  shortly  before  civilized  society  took  possession  of 
the  ancient  hunting-grounds.  So  far,  these  facts  are 
favorable  to  the  view  that  the  prairies  are  mainly  due 
to  fires  kindled  by  the  native  inhabitants  of  the  land. 
Certain  it  is  that  the  horizon  is  more  and  more  broken 
by  woodlands,  and  that  the  beauty  of  the  luxuriant 
ancient  meadows  will  be  in  some  measure  restored 


154  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

in  forest  and  field  with  the  development  of  an  older 
civilization. 

The  prairies  have  their  features  of  climate,  and 
they  are  as  sharp  and  peculiar  as  may  be  found  in 
New  England  and  on  the  Pacific  coast.  With  little 
interruption  there  are  lowlands  from  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  to  the  Arctic  Sea.  When  south  winds  pre 
vail,  the  heated  air  of  the  tropical  belt  sweeps  un 
hindered  up  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio  valleys,  and 
the  summers  are  intensely  hot  in  Cincinnati  and  St. 
Louis,  and  they  are  not  cool  in  Des  Moines  and  St. 
Paul.  For  days  at  a  time  the  thermometer  in  central 
Iowa  may  touch  or  pass  one  hundred  degrees.  And 
the  north  winds,  in  like  fashion,  take  their  turn,  and 
bring  the  extreme  winter  temperatures  of  the  prairies 
far  below  zero.  The  cyclonic  whirls  which  bring  the 
warm  and  cold  waves  sweep  from  the  northwest  to 
the  Atlantic  coast,  following  each  other  throughout 
the  year,  and  most  frequently  and  fiercely  in  the 
winter  months.  And  in  these  conditions  of  swift 
movement  of  enormous  masses  of  the  atmosphere, 
develops,  in  the  summer  months,  the  dreaded  tornado. 
It  is  a  land  of  climatic  extremes,  but  the  summer 
heat,  with  sufficient  rainfall  and  rich  soil,  brings 
great  harvests,  and  the  tonic  of  winter's  cold  is  the 
more  efficient  because  of  the  drier  air  that  is  charac 
teristic  of  a  continental  interior.  This  is  more  true 
west  of  the  Mississippi  River,  where  the  summer  con 
ditions  are  more  favorable  than  they  are  in  the  Ohio 
River  belt. 

The  prairies  display  most  of  their  natural  riches  in 
the  form  of  soils,  a  true  product  of  the  rocks  that  lie 


THE  PRAIRIP:  COUNTRY  155 

below.  Silver  and  gold  have  they  none,  save  as  they 
gain  them  by  exchange  for  the  wealth  of  their  limit 
less  fields.  Nor  in  general  have  they  iron  or  other 
metallic  stores.  But  they  have  one  resource  of  the 
under-earth  that  will  mean  more  and  more  as  their 
industrial  life  becomes  mature,  —  they  possess,  in 
thousands  of  square  miles,  beds  of  soft  coal.  In 
large  measure  the  men  of  the  prairies  can  afford  to 
plow  while  others  turn  spindles  and  build  chimneys, 
but  there  must  also  be  some  place  for  the  town  and 
the  mill.  Of  waterpower  nature  has  been  sparing  in 
this  land  of  low  levels  and  little  relief,  but  she  has 
been  generous  with  her  stores  of  fuel,  and  hence  the 
central  West  will  not  be  given  over  to  a  monotony  of 
cornfields  and  grain  drills,  of  threshing-machines  and 
elevators.  She  can  have,  in  some  degree,  the  diver 
sity  which  will  provide  for  both  her  wealth  and  her 
culture. 

If  we  consider  the  people  that  were  to  work  out  its 
destiny,  the  Northwest  Territory  was  unoccupied  at 
the  close  of  the  War  of  Independence.  There  was 
no  settled  community  of  white  men  in  what  is  now 
the  state  of  Ohio ;  unless,  indeed,  the  Moravian  mis 
sionary  settlements  of  1772  be  counted  an  exception. 
But  this  entire  region  was  in  the  track  of  the  great 
migrations  of  the  next  thirty  years,  and  its  soil  and 
its  rivers  attracted  the  first  and  larger  share  of  these 
early  colonists.  Extending  from  the  Lake  to  the 
Ohio  River,  Ohio  must  be  the  avenue  of  all  who 
crossed  the  Appalachian  barrier  north  of  the  Cum 
berland  Gap.  If  they  came  by  the  Mohawk  Valley, 
they  would  skirt  the  southern  shore  of  the  Lakes  and 


I56 


GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 


enter  Ohio  on  the  north.  If  they  followed  the  roads 
laid  out  in  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  they  would 
touch  the  Ohio  River  at  Pittsburg  or  Wheeling,  and 
enter  the  region  from  the  south.  The  first  immi 
grants  followed  the  latter  route,  for  they  went  out 
under  the  Ohio  Company,  and  in  1788  took  possession 


of  the  land  where  the  Muskingum  from  the  north 
enters  the  Ohio  River.  Fort  Harmer  had  already 
been  built  on  the  west  side  of  the  smaller  river,  and 
the  settlers  occupied  the  east  bank  and  founded  Ma 
rietta.  As  with  other  communities  transplanted  from 
the  East,  the  traditions  of  the  old  home  were  strong, 
and  the  sons  of  the  pioneers,  in  1833,  founded  the 
school  which  soon  became  the  Marietta  College,  thus 
naturalizing,  so  far  as  they  could,  the  spirit  of  Har 
vard  and  Yale  on  the  Ohio  River, 


THE   PRAIRIE   COUNTRY  157 

Blockhouses  were  built  at  Losantiville  in  1780,  and 
settlers  later  came  in  from  New  England,  New  Jersey, 
and  the  South.  This  was  far  down  the  Ohio,  almost 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Miami.  This  outpost  in  the 
western  wilderness  was  soon  to  be  known  as  Cincin 
nati  ;  and  Moses  Cleaveland,  a  few  years  later,  planted 
the  northern  center  of  the  Ohio  region  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Cuyahoga.  By  the  year  1803  so  many  people 
had  come  in  that  Ohio  was  admitted  as  a  state  in  the 
Union,  and  the  empire  between  the  Lakes  and  the  Ohio 
was  fairly  begun ;  but  it  seemed  to  be  thriving  at  the 
expense  of  the  East.  When  foreign  trade  was  active, 
the  people  employed,  and  money  plenty,  the  rush  to 
the  West  fell  off.  But  when  stagnation  ruled  on  the 
seaboard,  the  farmers,  mechanics,  and  laborers  sold 
their  homes,  gathered  up  what  they  could,  took  their 
children  and  their  goods,  in  wagons,  in  carts,  and  on 
their  backs,  and  began  their  weary  march  from  Maine, 
Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  the  central  Atlantic 
country  to  the  land  of  promise  beyond  the  mountains. 
There  fields  could  be  had  for  little  more  than  the 
clearing  and  tilling,  there  the  soil  had  unheard-of 
richness,  there  they  would  not  be  put  in  prison  for 
debt,  and  there  they  and  their  children  could  start 
life  afresh. 

McMaster  has  gathered  from  many  sources  the 
records  and  incidents  of  this  early  rush  across  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania.1  From  a  little  Pennsylva 
nia  village  on  the  road  to  Pittsburg,  it  was  reported 
that  a  month  in  181 1  saw  the  passage  of  two  hundred 
and  thirty-six  wagons,  with  nearly  two  thousand  per- 

1  "  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,"  IV,  Ch.  XXXIII. 


158  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

sons,  toward  Ohio.  Similar  stories  were  told  from 
Auburn  and  elsewhere  in  New  York.  Mount  Pleas 
ant  in  Ohio,  from  a  trivial  beginning  in  1810,  had  five 
hundred  people  five  years  later.  One  hundred  and 
twenty  people,  from  one  town  in  Maine,  passed  Hav- 
erhill,  Mass.,  in  a  single  day,  and  the  westward  move 
ment  not  only  stirred  the  East  with  fear,  but  took 
such  proportions  in  Great  Britain  as  there  also  to 
arouse  alarm. 

In  the  clearing  of  the  forest,  in  the  rude  log-cabin, 
in  the  poverty  of  food  and  clothing,  and  in  all  the 
hardships  of  the  frontier,  the  early  days  of  Ohio  com 
pare  with  New  York  or  Massachusetts.  It  was  not 
a  prairie  state  which  could  be  overrun  with  a  plow 
in  a  decade.1 

Almost  the  same  story  is  to  be  told  of  Indiana,  but 
it  came  a  little  later.  She  already  had  a  populous 
settlement  on  the  Wabash,  but  its  interest  was  in  the 
past  rather  than  the  future.  In  her  present  territory 
there  were  twenty-five  hundred  settlers  in  1800; 
but  there  were  twenty-four  thousand  in  1810,  and 
seventy  thousand  in  1816,  when  she  came  to  statehood. 
The  state  had  been  entered  along  the  three  great 
lines  of  movement,  controlled  by  geographic  features, 
and  now  become  familiar  to  us.  The  first  was  along 
the  Mohawk  Valley  and  the  Lakes,  and  the  stream 
was  soon  to  become  a  flood,  with  the  finishing  of  the 
Erie  Canal.  The  second  approach  was  by  the  new 
National  Road,  crossing  the  Ohio  River  at  Wheeling, 
marked  along  its  course  in  Ohio  by  Zanesville,  Colum- 

1  The  story  is  well  told  by  King,  "  Ohio,"  in  "  American  Common 
wealths,"  Ch.  XL 


THE    PRAIRIE   COUNTRY  159 

bus,  and  Springfield,  and  entering  Indiana  at  Rich 
mond.  The  third  entrance  was  from  the  Kentucky 
and  Cumberland  settlements,  crossing  the  Ohio  River 
and  coming  in  on  the  south. 

Illinois  had  about  the  same  white  population  in 
1800  as  her  eastern  neighbor,  and  was  but  two  years 
behind  in  her  admission  to  the  Union,  since  this  took 
place  before  the  close  of  1818.  It  was  but  a  step  to 
cross  the  Mississippi.  There  had  long  been  on  its 
western  banks  a  mongrel  population  of  Spaniard, 
French,  Indians,  and  negroes,  and  St.  Louis  had 
been  a  fur-trading  post  since  1764.  But  the  great 
inrush  followed  upon  the  Louisiana  Purchase  of  1803, 
the  year  in  which  Lewis  and  Clark  set  out  from 
St.  Louis  on  their  western  exploration.  But  here,  as 
north  of  the  Ohio,  the  permanent  settlers  came  from 
the  East.  That  East,  however,  was  not  all  on  the 
Atlantic  slope,  for  the  sons  of,  the  Kentucky  back 
woodsmen  were  moving  on.  More  than  that,  and 
as  if  typical  of  the  march  westward,  Boone  himself 
crossed  the  Mississippi,  lived  many  years,  and  in  1820 
died  on  the  borders  of  the  Missouri  River. 

In  1819  Jacob  Astor  made  St.  Louis  the  center  of 
his  western  fur  trade,  and  in  1821,  after  stormy  times, 
Missouri  became  a  member  of  the  Union. 

At  length  the  stream  of  population  crossed  the 
Mississippi  farther  to  the  north  and  laid  the  founda 
tions  of  Iowa.  Once  a  part  of  Louisiana,  later  under 
the  wing  of  Michigan  and  then  of  Wisconsin,  she 
was  herself  to  surrender  Minnesota  and  the  Dakotas, 
and  in  1846,  ten  years  before  a  railway  crossed  the 
Mississippi,  join  the  sisterhood  of  states.  Iowa  has 


160  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

been  called  Mesopotamia,  and  another  river  crossing 
set  the  home  seekers  over  the  Missouri,  and  sent  them 
on  the  long  up-stream  trails,  by  the  Platte  and  the 
Missouri,  that  have  peopled  Nebraska  and  the  Da- 
kotas,  and  carried  the  dominion  of  man  to  the  foot 
of  the  western  mountains.  We  may  call  it  about  an 
even  century  from  the  time  when  Boone  struck  into 
the  Ohio  Valley  to  the  day  when  populous  states 
filled  the  basin  of  the  Mississippi. 

In  the  eighteenth  century  the  long  struggle  for  the 
Northwest  lay  between  the  East  and  the  Northeast. 
From  the  latter  realm  on  the  St.  Lawrence  it  had 
been  ruled  first  by  the  French  and  then  by  the  British, 
with  the  always  uncertain  savage  now  in  one  balance 
and  then  in  another.  George  Rogers  Clark,  at  Kas- 
kaskia  and  Vincennes,  drove  the  wedge  that  split  the 
Northwest  from  the  Northeast,  and  the  settlers  that 
poured  through  the  gateways  of  the  Appalachians 
cemented  it  to  the  young  nation  on  the  east. 

It  has  been  left  for  the  nineteenth  century  to  see 
whether  the  prairie  country  would  be  tied  by  the 
closer  bonds  to  the  East  or  the  South,  and  the  answer 
is  not  yet  given.  On  the  whole,  geography  favors 
the  South,  and  there  are  signs  that  she  may  win,  or 
at  least  divide  the  spoils  of  commerce.  In  those  older 
days,  when  the  frontier  was  on  the  western  slopes  of 
the  Alleghany  plateau,  both  the  East  and  the  West 
shared  in  the  fight  for  freedom.  In  the  East  the 
more  disciplined  armies  of  the  thirteen  colonies  fought 
the  armies  of  Great  Britain.  In  the  West  the  fiercer 
fighters  of  the  backwoods  won  the  lowlands  of  the 
Mississippi  in  the  critical  inch  of  time  that  saved  the 


THE   PRAIRIE   COUNTRY  l6l 

interior  for  the  Republic.  There  was  enough  to  do ; 
there  was  a  common  foe,  and  no  time  for  jealousy. 
But  when  the  war  was  over,  the  problems  of  state 
hood  and  of  commerce  presented  themselves,  and  the 
Appalachian  barrier  and  the  trend  of  Mississippi 
waters  asserted  their  power.  The  conservative  East 
felt  that  the  seaboard  had  won  the  struggle,  and  that 
her  wisdom  and  her  sound  judgment  were  not  to  be 
sacrificed  to  the  rough  instincts  and  growing  vote  of 
the  untutored  men  across  the  mountains. 

It  was  not  easy  to  persuade  Virginia,  in  the  first 
years  of  peace,  that  she  should  voluntarily  release 
her  subjects,  as  she  regarded  them,  across  the  moun 
tains.  Nor  was  it  a  light  task  in  the  face  of  Indian 
outbreaks,  and  the  real  or  supposed  neglect  of  the 
mother  state,  to  check  the  self-reliant,  and,  in  some 
cases,  turbulent  men,  that  were  for  breaking  away 
and  setting  up  an  empire  in  Kentucky.  All  the 
motives  were  hammered  to  white  heat  by  the  talk  of 
cutting  off  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi.  The 
cleared  patches  and  prairie  glades  of  the  Ohio  coun 
try  were  beginning  to  produce  more  than  the  hominy 
needed  to  feed  the  pioneer.  The  trails  across  the 
mountains  might  do  as  a  toilsome  road  to  come  in  by, 
but  they  were  no  highway  to  a  market.  *  New  Eng 
land  and  the  East  had  no  care  about  boating  down 
the  Mississippi.  They  would  be  content  to  preserve 
the  favor  of  the  king  of  Spain ;  but  not  so  the  Ken 
tucky  pioneer,  who  knew  that  the  water  flowed  freely 
to  the  Gulf,  who  had  timber  for  flatboats,  and  produce 
that  he  could  market  in  New  Orleans,  but  for  a  for 
eign  king  and  a  selfish  New  England.  Nor  was  he 


162  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

brought  to  calmness  of  spirit  when  one  of  his  bold 
fellows  had  taken  a  flat-boat  of  flour  and  utensils 
down  the  river,  had  seen  it  confiscated  by  Spanish 
officers  at  Natchez,  had  toiled  home  by  land,  and  had 
spread  over  all  the  transmontane  country  the  story  of 
his  wrongs.  Such  in  brief  were  the  conditions,  and 
they  were  chiefly  geographic,  that  almost  carried  the 
West  and  Southwest  to  Spanish  intrigue  and  to  sepa 
ration  from  the  states  that  adopted  the  Constitutiony 

But  in  1796  a  treaty  with  Spain  opened  the  trade 
of  the  Mississippi  River,  and  in  1803  this  source  of 
possible  disunion  was  removed  by  the  purchase  of 
Louisiana.  But  federal  writers  in  the  East  rung 
the  changes  on  the  folly  and  iniquity  of  this  vast 
expansion  into  remote  and  alien  regions.  In  particu 
lar  was  the  extravagance  of  the  purchase  denounced  ; 
fifteen  millions  of  dollars  for  the  South  and  the  far 
West! 

When  the  wheels  of  statehood  and  of  expansion 
had  been  set  upon  their  course,  the  problems  of  com 
merce  still  arose  between  the  East  and  West,  and 
they  still  grew  out  of  the  physiography.  Water  ran 
downhill,  and  it  was  hard  to  make  roads  and  drag 
food  and  clothing  and  other  things  across  mountains. 
Hence  arose  those  disturbed  cries  of  Washington  and 
other  statesmen  of  the  East,  for  landways  and  water 
ways  across  the  barrier,  and  thus  followed  that  gene 
ration  of  way-making  which  has  already  engaged  our 
attention.  When  steam  had  fully  established  itself 
on  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi,  and  the  railroads 
had  not  come,  it  would  seem  that  the  domain  of  New 
Orleans  and  the  South  should  be  complete,  and  the 


THE    PRAIRIE   COUNTRY  163 

prairies  become  linked  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  But 
there  were  at  least  two  causes  which  threatened,  and 
indeed  almost  destroyed,  the  growing  and  natural 
union  of  the  north  and  south  Mississippi  country. 
One  of  these  causes  lay  in  the  interests  which  led  up 
by  a  long  road  to  the  Civil  War,  severing  the  two  sec 
tions  by  loss  of  sympathy  and  by  several  years  of 
actual  hostility.  The  other  was  the  construction  of 
through  lines  of  railway,  along  easy  grades,  with 
swift  service,  between  the  prairies  and  the  seaboard. 
To  this  of  course  was  added  the  growth  of  Lake 
commerce  in  connection  with  railways  and  canals, 
and  the  fact  which  counts  for  something,  that  the 
Atlantic  ports  are  nearer  Europe  than  are  those  of 
the  Gulf.  With  these  great  unfoldings  in  the  North 
has  gone  a  relative  decline  in  Mississippi  River  com 
merce,  and  of  St.  Louis,  as  compared  with  Chicago. 

But  will  not  the  pendulum  swing  and  carry  the 
central  states  to  their  natural  fellowship  with  their 
southern  neighbors,  giving  to  geographic  conditions 
their  proper  control  again  ?  Not  alone  for  men 
is  the  Mississippi  Valley  an  open  road.  Professor 
Shaler  has  made  reference  to  the  resemblances  of 
the  animals  and  the  plants  for  long  distances  north 
and  south  in  that  country,  and  to  the  alternate  do 
minion  of  tropic  heat  and  arctic  cold.  The  harvest 
ers  follow  ripening  wheat  fields  from  south  to  north, 
and  the  valley  is  marked  out  for  unity  and  inter 
change.  Not  long  hence  the  prairies  may  supply 
the  Orient  through  an  isthmian  canal ;  and  even  a 
half-dozen  years  ago  we  were  bidden  to  look  upon 
the  new  commercial  alliance  of  the  West  and  the 


1 64  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

South,  along  railways  that  will  carry  the  surplus  prod 
ucts  of  Nebraska,  Kansas,  and  Oklahoma  to  Galves- 
ton  or  some  other  Gulf  city  by  a  haul  five  hundred 
miles  shorter  than  lies  between  any  of  these  states 
and  the  Atlantic.  These  projects  will  be  immensely 
favored  as  the  South  develops  its  manufactures  and 
can  provide  thus  for  a  haul  both  ways,  making  rail 
way  traffic  profitable,  and  so  much  cheaper  South 
than  East,  that  the  extra  carriage  by  ship  across  the 
Gulf  need  not  be  considered.  This  "  probably  means 
decreased  revenues  for  the  eastern  traffic  lines  and 
the  related  industries,  but  unless  the  judgment  of  the 
West  is  at  fault,  it  means  better  times  for  the  plains. 
The  East  may  as  well  realize  that  its  child  has  come 
to  the  years  of  maturity  and  is  acting  for  itself."  1 
Galveston  is  nearer  by  more  than  two  hundred  miles 
to  central  Iowa  than  is  New  York,  and  there  are  not 
wanting  signs  that  here  also  the  north  and  south 
lines  of  movement  will  in  the  end  be  lines  of  control. 
Whatever  the  adjustment  be,  it  will  be  achieved  in 
another  generation,  but  the  prophet  may  well  be 
cautious,  in  view  of  the  unforeseen  and  unforeseeable 
expansion  of  artificial  waterways. 

Passing  by  the  hundred  years  of  fugitive  French 
and  British  occupation,  we  may  say  that  the  whole 
West  is  a  product  of  four  generations :  it  has  grown 
since  the  War  of  Independence,  and  the  oldest  state 
north  of  the  Ohio  River,  reaches  this  year  its  hun 
dredth  birthday.  There  is  no  history  here,  in  the 
ordinary  sense  of  the  term ;  we  have  no  perspective 
when  we  look  back,  for  we  are  yet  in  the  midst  of 

1  Charles  Moreau  Harger,  No.  Amer.  Rev.,  CLXV,  383,  1897. 


THE   PRAIRIE   COUNTRY  165 

things ;  and  difficult  as  it  always  is  to  separate  geo 
graphic  from  other  causes,  here  our  perplexities  are 
multiplied,  for  there  has  not  been  time  to  work  out 
the  problems,  or,  if  we  may  say  it,  such  has  been  the 
stirring,  that  .the  waters  have  had  no  time  to  clear 
and  let  us  look  to  the  bottom. 

It  has  been  lately  said  that  the  East  is  not  the 
parent  of  the  West,  that  New  England  and  New 
York  need  not  boast  of  so  lusty  a  child,  for  the  South 
is  the  real  mother.  But  this  is  rhetoric,  no  doubt 
pleasant  to  the  writer,  and  as  full  of  fallacy  as  rhet 
oric  often  is.  The  door  was  opened  by  the  South,  if 
it  was  the  South  that  lived  on  the  Holston,  the  Ken 
tucky,  and  the  Cumberland,  and  sent  forth  Boone, 
Robertson,  Sevier,  and  George  Rogers  Clark.  But 
we  have  followed  the  streams  of  western  migration 
with  little  attention,  and  have  read  the  story  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley  to  little  purpose,  if  we  do  not  see 
that  the  later  fabric,  warp  and  filling,  was  woven 
from  the  East.  It  was  New  England  and  New  York 
that  were  transplanted  to  Ohio,  Illinois,  and  Iowa. 
But  Ohio  and  Iowa  did  not  become  a  second  New 
England.  The  stress  of  a  thousand  miles  of  change 
will  strain  the  most  rigid  institutions  and  mold  cus 
tom  and  thought  into  new  shapes,  even  though  the 
material  is  much  the  same.  Some  things  were  uncon 
sciously  lost  in  the  journey  along  the  Seneca  Turn 
pike  or  the  Erie  Canal,  and  other  things  were  as 
unwittingly  taken  on  from  the  soil  and  free  air  of  the 
prairies.  There  were  no  hills  to  confine  the  view, 
and  by  a  very  old  law,  if  newly  recognized,  a  change 
of  environment  was  modifying  ancient  organs  and 


166  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

unfolding  new  ones.  The  East  is  the  parent  of  the 
West,  but  children  are  different  from  their  parents, 
and  not  seldom  outgrow  them.  "Blue  laws"  could 
hardly  flourish  in  Illinois,  where  an  exhaustless  soil 
bloomed  with  glorious  color  in  native  meadows,  only 
waiting  for  the  plow  to  yield  a  more  substantial  har 
vest.  Nor  were  there  veins  of  gold  or  silver,  to  lure 
thousands  of  daring  adventurers  and  herd  them  in 
mushroom  cities,  where  restraint  would  be  abandoned 
and  the  worst  passions  would  thrive  unhindered. 
Rather,  from  the  crowded  nursery,  with  its  thin  soil 
and  doubtful  climate,  there  was  a  great  transplanting, 
and  the  prairies  gave  depth  and  room  and  sunlight. 
We  may  take  Iowa  as  a  typical  prairie  common 
wealth.  Down  to  1840  her  place  in  the  census  is  a 
blank :  then  she  records  a  little  more  than  forty 
thousand  people;  by  1860  she  had  gained  a  popula 
tion  of  nearly  seven  hundred  thousand,  and  at  the 
close  of  the  century  was  the  tenth  state  in  the  Union, 
with  more  than  two  millions.  With  this  throng  of 
inhabitants,  she  has  one  city  that  passes  the  limit 
of  sixty  thousand.  But  three  others  exceed  thirty 
thousand  :  Iowa  is  a  rural  state.  A  recent  writer 
has  perhaps  done  full  justice  to  the  virtues  and  to  the 
limitations  of  Iowa : 1  "  She  is  a  huge  overflow  meet 
ing,  thronged  with  the  second  generation  of  middle- 
westerners."  So  uniform  and  rich  are  her  soils  that 
scarce  an  acre  in  the  whole  domain  need  run  to 
waste.  Tillage  was  easy,  and  the  only  serious  trials 
in  the  early  days  were  the  prairie  fires  and  the  diffi 
cult  transportation.  The  latter  was  solved,  as  it 

K'The  lowans,"  R.  L.  Hartt,  Atlantic  Monthly,  1900. 


THE    PRAIRIE    COUNTRY 


167 


seemed,  by  the  railways ;  but  when  the  short  hauls 
became  more  costly  than  the  long  ones,  Iowa  "  went 
to  grass,"  saved  her  soils  from  running  out,  and  so 
concentrated  her  grains  into  beef  and  butter  that  she 
suffered  less  at  the  hands  of  the  railways,  and  had 
still  before  her,  as  we  have  seen,  an  open  way  to  the 


FIG.  32.     Shade  on  the  Prairies.     Cottonwoods  in  Iowa. 

ports  on  the  Gulf.  Our  writer  brings  to  us  another's 
epitome  of  Scotland,  —  "Scott,  Burns,  heather,  whisky, 
and  religion,"  —and  then  gives  us  his  own  for  Iowa, 
"corn,  cow,  and  hog."  But  we  will  not  let  him  be 
misunderstood.  He  does  not  charge  this  great  com 
monwealth  with  dirt  and  materialism.  She  may  have 
no  history  and  not  yet  any  material  for  fiction,  but 
"industry,  morality,  intelligence,  and  loyalty,"  these 
are  hers  ;  and  "when  your  soul  is  bent  upon  finding  a 


168  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

happy  augury  for  your  country's  future,  what  better 
can  you  seek  ?  " 

Such  traits  we  may  ascribe  in  part  to  the  type  of 
men  and  women  that  would  be  attracted  to  such  a 
land  to  found  a  home,  and  in  part  to  steady  fellow 
ship  with  the  soil  and  sky,  remote  from  cities,  and 
set  apart  to  simple  and  single  interests.  But  the 
growth  of  railways  did  not  merely  bring  an  outlet  for 
surplus  hoards  of  grain  ;  it  brought  inevitable  contact 
with  the  outside  world,  and  the  prairies  have  not  been 
behind  in  their  crop  of  social  and  political  ideas.  No 
state  in  the  last  generation  has  been  more  prolific 
of  public  men  than  Iowa.  Prevalent  agriculture  and 
the  absence  of  mountains  do  not  mean  sordid  purpose 
or  narrow  vision.  The  prairies  have  their  own  ex- 
pansiveness  and  may  lure  the  eye  to  the  horizon 
when  older  countries  are  looking  at  their  own  garden 
patch.  A  cluster  of  great  universities  has  grown  in 
the  states  of  the  old  Northwest.  Nowhere  has  the 
state  fostered  the  higher  education  with  so  steady 
and  so  generous  a  hand.  And  the  small  colleges, 
often  too  small  and  too  many,  have  expressed  and 
met  the  needs  of  the  time,  and  the  fittest  will  survive. 
A  score  of  others  might  be  named  where  we  choose 
one,  once  a  small  college,  now  grown  large,  —  Ober- 
lin,  a  type  of  the  western  school,  preserving  the  in 
tegrity  and  faith  of  New  England,  and  truly  western 
in  its  free,  modern  organization  of  courses  of  education. 

In  political  ideas,  also,  the  prairies  have  not  seldom 
shown  the  freedom  and  erratic  energy  of  the  frontier, 
but  have  invariably  swung  toward  the  poise  and 
secure  verdicts  that  are  at  once  as  sound  and  safe  as 


THE   PRAIRIE   COUNTRY  169 

those  of  the  East,  and  yet  have  in  them  the  promise 
of  the  future  and  the  courage  of  action.  At  first  the 
westerner  belonged  to  the  debtor  class,  and  if  condi 
tions  pressed,  he  was  restless  and  radical,  and  impa 
tient  with  the  lenders  of  the  East.  It  is  the  land  of 
summer  heat  and  winter  cold,  with  a  tornado  now 
and  then  thrown  in,  prairie  breaths  of  populism  and 
fiat  money,  but  in  the  end  a  nursery  of  ideas,  sound 
and  progressive,  outgrowing  the  vagaries  of  an  infant 
state,  but  free  from  the  satisfied  conceit  and  sullen 
cocksureness  of  older  communities.  The  man  of  the 
prairie  is  ready  for  action  at  home  or  abroad,  bal 
anced  by  a  reasonable  culture  and  poised  by  an  expe 
rience  whose  lessons  he  does  not  leave  to  be  learned 
by  his  grandsons.  Mr.  Frederick  J.  Turner  in  an 
excellent  discussion  of  "The  Problem  of  the  West,"1 
quotes  the  assertion  of  Mr.  Bryce,  "  the  West  is  the 
most  American  part  of  America,"  and  admits  that 
there  is  force  in  the  claim  that  if  there  is  a  section 
alism  in  this  country,  it  is  eastern ;  for  "  the  old 
West,  united  to  the  new  South,  would  produce,  not  a 
new  sectionalism,  but  a  new  Americanism." 

If  we  could  follow  the  details  of  history  in  these 
central  states,  the  illustrations  of  physiographic  con 
trol  would  perhaps  be  as  common  as  they  are  in  New 
England  or  New  York,  unless  for  this  reason,  that 
along  the  railroads  of  the  prairies  towns  have  been 
laid  out  with  reference  to  convenient  intervals  and 
sometimes  in  the  complete  absence  of  determining 
local  features.  No  town  was  ever  so  fortunate  in  a 
change  of  name  as  Cincinnati,  whose  early  appella- 

1  Atlantic  Monthly,  September,  1896, 


I/O  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

tion  was  the  unhappy  invention  of  a  schoolmaster, 
L(icking)os-antiville,  a  thrice  mongrel  compound, 
meaning  the  town  opposite  the  mouth  of  the 
Licking. 

Like  every  town  by  the  water,  it  has  come  to  be 
the  center  of  many  railways,  and  will  retain  its  great 
ness  though  it  must  now  divide  its  honors  with  the 
city  by  the  Lakes.  Columbus  has  no  conspicuous 
geographic  causes  lying  behind  its  prosperity.  It  is 
indeed  on  the  Scioto,  it  is  in  the  midst  of  a  rich 
region,  but  most  of  all,  it  is  in  the  center  of  a  rich 
state  and  is  its  capital.  It  is  in  part,  therefore,  due  to 
political  causes,  and  may  be  briefly  dismissed  by  the 
geographer.  The  state  has  twenty-eight  towns  of 
more  than  ten  thousand  people,  and  is  thus  full  of 
such  local  centers  of  trade  as  must  always  develop 
in  a  great  agricultural  state.  The  same  is  true  of 
Indiana  and  every  upper  Mississippi  commonwealth. 
Indianapolis,  indeed,  is  much  smaller  than  the  twin 
cities  of  Ohio,  but  added  more  than  sixty  thousand 
to  her  numbers  in  the  last  decade.  Like  Columbus, 
she  is  on  a  small  river,  the  geographical  and  political 
center  of  a  great  state,  and  sends  her  railways  in 
every  direction.  Louisville  had  its  beginning  in  a 
ledge  of  limestone  in  the  bed  of  a  river,  and  in  the 
need  of  portage,  at  low  water,  around  the  rather  high- 
sounding  "  Falls  of  the  Ohio."  It  is  a  river  town, 
therefore,  as  well  as  the  metropolis  of  a  state. 

St.  Louis  cannot  run  in  the  race  with  the  city  by 
Lake  Michigan,  yet  may  hope  for  great  and  per 
manent  development  as  a  river  town.  She  is  on  the 
Mississippi ;  is  almost  at  the  mouth  of  the  Missouri ; 


THE   PRAIRIE    COUNTRY 


I/I 


is  on  the  future  highway  between  the  prairies  and  the 
Gulf,  and  is  in  the  line  of  traffic  moving  between  the  far 
Northeast  and  the  far  Southwest,  and  she  is  at  the 
same  time  the  chief  city  of  a  state.  Save  for  Chicago, 
Illinois  is  a  state  of  local  communities  of  modest  size, 
and  Wisconsin  has  no  interior  town  of  thirty  thousand 
people.  These  conditions  are  altogether  favorable 


FIG.  33.     Library  and  Campus  of  the  University  of  Nebraska. 

for  the  growth  of  a  strong  and  clean  civilization,  saved 
from  the  dearth  of  rural  life  by  the  school,  the  free 
delivery  of  mails,  and  every  other  means  of  constant 
and  swift  communication.  Minnesota  has  no  popu 
lation  centers  that  compare  with  Minneapolis  and  St. 
Paul,  though  Duluth,  with  her  fifty  thousand  people, 
is  a  rival  in  the  volume  of  her  business.  Aside  from 
these  three,  Minnesota  has  but  two  towns  of  more 


1/2  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

than  ten  thousand  people,  and  is  distinctly  a   rural 
commonwealth. 

Across  the  river  from  Iowa  is  Nebraska,  and  Omaha 
its  metropolis.  It  represents  the  second  tier  of  states 
beyond  the  Mississippi,  prairie  on  the  east  and  arid  on 
the  west.  It  is  like  its  eastern  neighbor  in  its  soils, 
—  fine,  deep,  level,  and  easily  tilled,  —  and  in  its  domi 
nant  agriculture,  for  its  factories  are  yet  to  be  built. 
Like  Iowa,  Nebraska  has  learned  to  pasture  some  of 
its  lands,  but  here  the  division  is  a  geographic  or  cli 
matic  one.  She  found  to  her  sorrow  that  corn  could 
not  regularly  be  grown  west  of  the  middle  of  the  state, 
and  hence  adjusted  herself  to  environment,  by  pastur 
ing  the  west  and  plowing  the  east ;  and  like  Iowa, 
also,  she  is  learning  the  routes  that  lead  southward,  and 
the  bulk  of  her  corn  goes  to  New  Orleans.  Typical 
of  the  progress  of  this  young  and  physically  monot 
onous  state,  her  state  University  gathers  at  Lincoln 
two  thousand  of  her  sons  and  daughters,  and  takes  no 
place  inferior  to  cattle  or  corn  in  the  hearts  of  the 
citizen  of  the  plains. 


CHAPTER    VI 

COTTON,    RICE,   AND   CANE 

IF  any  reader  is  disposed  to  think  a  blunder  has 
been  made  in  choosing  a  head-line,  no  offense  will  be 
taken  and  no  defense  made.  Grain,  lumber,  and  iron 
would  do  just  as  well,  and  perhaps  better,  and  both 
together  would  be  better  still,  for  they  tell  us  at  the 
beginning  of  the  old  South  and  the  new.  Never  until 
now  has  nature  rightly  had  her  way  in  the  Gulf  coun 
try,  but  she  is  fast  winning  her  hold,  and  that  process 
of  adjustment  of  man  to  the  earth,  which  takes  place 
in  all  lands,  is  here  coming  about  in  a  day. 

The  Atlantic  plains  of  tide-water  Virginia  continue 
through  the  Carolinas  and  merge  with  like  plains 
about  the  Gulf.  They  seem  to  be  separate  from  each 
other  because  the  long  peninsula  of  Florida  runs  so 
far  down  into  the  half-tropical  seas,  making  an  out 
side  and  an  inside  realm.  But,  in  a  general  way,  a 
description  of  Virginia  or  South  Carolina  would  an 
swer  for  Alabama  or  Texas;  for  all  have  outer  low 
lands  and  inner  uplands.  The  uplands  differ  greatly 
in  height  and  character.  South  Carolina  has  little 
mountain  land  like  Virginia,  and  no  great  plateaus 
like  Texas,  but  they  all  have  the  coastal  plain,  and  to 
the  geologist  the  coastal  plain  is  young,  wherever 
found.  Its  beds  are  undisturbed,  its  surfaces  are  low 


1/4  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

and  flat,  its  rocks  are  soft,  and  its  rivers  often  entered 
by  the  tides. 

The  characteristic  South  of  the  old  days  has  grown 
upon  this  lowland  belt,  bordering  the  sea.  South 
Carolina  would  be  as  good  an  example  as  we  could 
find,  for  her  rivers  cross  the  Piedmont  plateau,  and, 
on  a  dividing  line  about  five  hundred  feet  above  the 
sea,  enter  the  plain  belt,  and  reach  the  open  sea 
through  tidal  inlets.  The  coastal  plain  makes  two- 
thirds  of  the  state  and  is  more  than  twice  as  large  as 
Massachusetts. 

In  many  ways  the  local  life  and  industries  have 
long  been  fitted  to  the  land.  Sea-island  cotton,  rice, 
and  truck  farming  find  their  place  on  the  marshy 
plains  and  low  islands  of  the  coast.  Between  the 
plain  and  the  plateau  is  a  belt  of  sandy  country, 
twenty  miles  wide  or  more,  and  the  "  sand-hillers " 
live  in  ignorance  and  share  the  poverty  of  the  soil. 
The  " black  belt"  is  along  the  seaboard  plain,  for 
here  the  cotton,  rice,  and  indigo  were  grown  which 
made  slave  labor  profitable,  often  a  toil  in  swamps 
which  the  white  man  was  unwilling  or  unable  to  en 
dure.  Here  the  blacks  vastly  outnumber  the  whites, 
while  in  the  colder  northwest  corner  of  the  state,  with 
its  poorer  soil,  its  cooler  climate,  and  its  absence  of 
rice  and  cotton,  the  whites  are  threefold  more  numer 
ous  than  the  colored  people. 

As  in  the  North  Carolina  lowlands,  the  railways 
often  run  straight  toward  their  destination,  as  unhin 
dered  by  physiographic  barriers  as  on  the  plains  of 
Nebraska.  The  shore-line  of  South  Carolina,  broken 
like  that  of  Virginia,  drew  the  colonists  and  gave  dis- 


176  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

tinction  to  its  early  history.  Even  if  Florida  had  not 
been  under  Spanish  rule,  she  was  farther  away,  and 
her  eastern  coast-line  was  less  inviting  to  emigrants 
from  the  more  northern  peoples  of  Europe.  Georgia 
was  a  kind  of  afterthought  to  South  Carolina,  as  popu 
lation  extended  across  the  Savannah  River  westward. 

North  Carolina  is  as  rich  in  the  gifts  of  her  plains 
and  mountains  as  her  neighbors  on  the  north  and 
south.  She  has  her  wide  stretch  of  coastal  lowlands, 
with  their  fertile  soils  and  genial  climate,  her  Pied 
mont  area  of  field  and  forest,  and  her  magnificent 
mountains.  But  these  counted  for  little  at  first,  for 
the  land  does  not  present  the  right  front  to  the  sea. 
The  long  sand  reef  that  culminates  in  Hatteras,  and 
the  fitful  seas  outside,  cut  off  easy  approach  to  the 
mainland;  there  is  no  swift  retiring,  as  at  Charleston 
or  Cape  Henry,  into  safe  and  protected  waters.  Ra 
leigh's  colony  on  Roanoke  Island  was  earlier  than 
any  settlement  in  Virginia  or  South  Carolina,  but  it 
did  not  last,  and  North  Carolina  became  in  the  end  a 
resort  for  the  poorer  and  less  intelligent  colonists  who 
came  to  the  greater  northern  neighbor.  She  was, 
as  Fiske  has  described  her,  a  kind  of  backwoods  ap 
pendage  to  Virginia.  Ignorance,  thriftlessness,  and 
disorder  long  reigned,  and  it  took  the  colony  genera 
tions  to  recover  from  the  unhappy  conditions  of  her 
early  days  and  become  in  the  end  a  commonwealth 
worthy  of  her  domain.  All  this  follows  upon  the  low 
and  sandy  rampart  which  she  put  in  front  of  the 
waters  of  Albemarle  and  Pamlico. 

Florida  is  altogether  a  part  of  the  coastal  plain, 
with  its  low-lying  lands  and  its  thousand  miles  of  sea- 


COTTON,    RICE,   AND   CANE  177 

coast.  Nowhere  is  there  a  surface  more  than  a  few 
hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  and  all  of  its 
rocks  belong  to  late  periods  of  geological  time.  From 
the  geologist's  point  of  view,  one  does  not  go  far  back 
to  find  the  Atlantic  shore  sweeping  around  by  the 
Fall  Line  through  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  into 
Alabama,  leaving  vast  tracts  of  open  ocean,  where 
Florida  now  lies.  The  old  sea  bottom  has  been 
raised,  by  the  broadest  and  lowest  sort  of  an  arch 
that  can  be  imagined,  to  form  the  wide,  flat  peninsula 
that  now  divides  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  from  the  Atlantic 
waters.  Physically  so  youthful,  it  is  also  by  far  the 
youngest  of  the  Atlantic  states  in  the  growth  of  civ 
ilization,  even  though  the  oldest  civilized  settlement 
in  the  United  States  is  on  its  eastern  shore.  But  this 
backwardness  has  no  physiographic  origin,  unless  in 
the  rather  roundabout  reason  that  the  seas  brought 
the  Spaniard  here  for  a  long  and  repressive  rule. 
Great  Britain  held  Florida  for  a  few  years  before  and 
after  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  and  in  spite  of  her 
awkward  handling  of  her  American  colonies  is  cred 
ited  with  more  advance  for  Florida  than  the  Spaniard 
made  in  two  hundred  years.  No  doubt  many  who 
have  looked  with  keen  feeling  upon  American  doings 
in  Cuba  have  forgotten,  or  never  knew,  that  Spain 
ceded  Florida  to  the  United  States  as  late  as  the  year 
1821.  Great  towns  have  always  been  few  in  the 
South,  and  Florida  is  in  this  more  southern  than  most 
of  her  neighbors,  for  she  has  but  four  communities  of 
more  than  five  thousand  people.  Tampa,  Pensacola, 
and  Key  West  range  from  fifteen  thousand  to  eigh 
teen  thousand,  and  the  metropolis  is  Jacksonville,  with 


1/8  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

a  little  less  than  thirty  thousand,  but  known  far  be 
yond  most  northern  towns  of  its  own  size. 

That  the  town  will  give  way  to  the  country  in 
Florida  for  a  long  time,  and  perhaps  for  all  time, 
may  well  be  believed.  She  has  little  water-power, 
few  mineral  deposits,  and  no  coal.  The  only  doubt 
ful  element  would  seem  to  be  in  her  commercial  op 
portunities,  which  may  be  very  great  in  the  changes 
that  are  coming  in  and  about  the  American  Mediter 
ranean.  The  geographer  meets  a  full  share  of  excep 
tions  to  his  rules,  and  one  of  these  comes  to  light  in 
the  flat  stretches  of  this  peninsula.  He  is  likely  to 
say  that  thousands  of  lakes  betoken  the  recent  inva 
sion  of  ice.  But  no  ice  invasion  has  touched  Florida, 
-  nothing  colder  than  killing  frosts,  —  and  yet  the 
lakes,  in  thousands,  are  here,  due,  it  seems,  to  the  sol 
vent  action  of  water  upon  the  soft  limestones  of  the 
upraised  sea-floor. 

And  when  one  goes  along  the  sluggish  rivers 
and  lagoons  that  lie  back  of  the  low  barriers  of  the 
shore,  or  tries  to  pierce  the  thickets  of  the  Everglade 
swamps,  or  sees  the  mangroves  dropping  their  pen 
dent  branches  to  root  in  the  shallow  water,  or  counts 
the  coral  keys  that  link  Key  West  to  the  mainland, 
he  knows  that  he  is  seeing  a  continent  in  the  mak 
ing,  he  has  caught  the  weaver  at  his  work,  and  about 
him  lies  a  new  fabric,  with  an  unfamiliar  stitch  and 
a  fresh  pattern. 

And  after  all,  Florida  is  not  so  much  unlike  the 
other  commonwealths  of  the  South.  She  is  a  little 
more  tropical,  but  is  not  singular  in  the  fields  of  cot 
ton,  cane,  and  corn,  or  in  the  enormous  forests  of  live 


ISO  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

oak  and  pine  that  afford  about  half  of  the  annual 
product  of  the  region.  Oranges  and  pineapples  are 
a  little  more  her  own.  Florida  is  something  more 
than  a  sanitarium  for  Northern  victims  of  consump 
tion  and  nervous  prostration.  The  North  regards 
Florida  as  a  comfortable  refuge  from  the  blizzards 
and  cold  fogs  of  what  is  often  called  spring  in  those 
higher  latitudes,  but  when  the  overcoat  has  been 
thrown  off,  the  tourist  among  the  live  oaks  and  droop 
ing  mosses  may  not  detect  the  thrill  of  business  and  of 
new  thought  that  has  reached  this  Land's  End.  Alli 
gators  and  even  orange  orchards  are  not  likely  to 
monopolize  a  state  which  has  a  thousand  miles  of  in 
dented  shore-line  and  thirty-five  hundred  miles  of  rail 
road,  with  warm  skies,  rich  soil,  and  plentiful  rainfall. 
Geologists  are  familiar  with  an  ancient  outline  of 
our  southern  shore,  which  comes  to  mind  when  men 
tion  is  made  of  the  Mississippi  embayment.  This 
means  that  sea-waters  covered  the  regions  of  the 
lower  Mississippi  as  far  north  as  the  mouth  of  the 
Ohio  River,  while  a  great  peninsula  of  older  Appala 
chian  land  came  down  as  far  as  middle  Alabama  and 
Georgia.  On  the  west,  too,  older  lands  reached  into 
Arkansas.  The  southern  half  of  all  the  Gulf  states, 
and  all  of  Florida,  had  not  yet  come  into  being,  and 
the  broad,  deep  gulf  of  the  Mississippi  included  parts 
of  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  and  Arkansas.  Two  great 
lobes  of  ancient  land  flanked  the  embayment.  This 
gulf  has  filled  up,  the  whole  shore-line  has  moved 
southward  by  half  the  width  of  the  southern  tier  of 
states,  and  Florida  is  a  new  land  thrown  in.  And  all 
this  young  land  is  coastal  plain,  continuous  around  to 


COTTON,    RICE,   AND   CANE  181 

New  Jersey.  There  is  one  exception  worth  mention, 
and  that  is  the  lowland  bordering  the  Mississippi 
River.  In  the  old  days  of  the  embayment  the  delta 
of  the  Mississippi  lay  below  the  site  of  Cairo ;  and  it 
has  been  moving  a  little  farther  south  ever  since  that 
time.  The  older  sea  muds  of  the  delta  region  have 
been  covered  up  by  the  muds  that  came  from  the 
prairies  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  so  that  if  we  dig 
or  bore  in  the  delta  we  should  be  apt  to  find  wood 
and  seeds  and  bones  from  the  land,  while  if  we  dig 
farther  west  or  east  we  shall  find  marine  shells  and 
other  organic  growths  of  the  sea. 

The  Appalachian  uplands  are  even  now  like  a  pen 
insula,  —  they  are  a  mass  of  mountain  and  plateau, 
reaching  out  into  a  plain.  In  the  peninsula  the 
rocks  are  either  folded,  or  at  least  much  uplifted  and 
hard.  In  the  plain  the  beds  are  flat  and  low  and 
soft.  The  typical  South  is  this  never  ending  stretch 
of  coastal  plain ;  the  opportunity  of  the  South  is  in 
its  closeness  to  the  useful  things  on  and  in  the  earth 
within  the  upland. 

In  the  old  days  the  Arkansas  River  had  its  own 
opening  into  the  sea,  and  so  also  did  the  Red,  and  what 
ever  represented  the  Tennessee.  But  as  the  gulf 
filled  up,  and  the  edge  of  the  sea  was  pushed  south 
ward,  these  rivers  were  joined  to  the  main  trunk,  so 
that  the  Mississippi  was  growing,  roughly  speaking, 
like  a  tree,  at  its  roots,  at  its  outmost  boughs,  and  by 
the  grafting  on  of  full-grown  branches. 

Every  great  river  in  its  lower  course  spreads  down 
much  of  the  waste  that  it  has  gathered  in  its  upland 
flow.  Some  of  the  mud  sinks,  regardless  of  the  slack 


182  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

current,  far  within  the  banks,  and  the  rest  goes  out  to 
sea.  Every  overflow  carries  the  waste  widely  out  on 
the  bottom-lands  and  builds  them  up,  —  the  flood 
plains  of  the  river.  The  Mississippi  has  its  thousands 
of  miles  of  these  bottom-lands,  sloping  off  from  the 
edge  of  the  river,  which  drops  more  waste  close  by 
than  it  does  farther  away,  and,  by  silting  its  bed,  comes 
at  length  to  flow  on  a  broad,  low  ridge  of  its  own 
making.  So  we  can  understand  how  a  break  in  a 
levee  sends  the  waters  rushing  over  vast  fields  of  the 
lower  lands. 

Of  the  ten  Southern  states  that  border  the  sea, 
three,  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  and  Florida,  belong 
almost  wholly  to  the  coastal  plain,  and  they  are 
throughout  low,  flat,  and  young,  while  all  the  rest 
share  in  the  older  uplands  that  lie  behind.  The 
average  elevation  of  Louisiana  is  seventy-five  feet, 
and  no  point  within  the  state  is  five  hundred  feet 
above  the  sea.  There  are  twenty  thousand  miles  of 
river  lands,  and  coast  swamps  and  shallow  lakes 
abound,  either  lagoons  shut  off  from  the  Gulf  by  low 
barriers,  or  cut-off  lakes  left  by  the  wide  migrations 
of  the  fitful  river  upon  its  flood  plain  and  delta.  As 
we  might  expect  in  such  a  land,  Florida  has  but  one 
mineral  of  importance,  —  the  phosphates;  and  Louisi 
ana  likewise  has  one, — rock-salt. 

The  lower  Mississippi  was  to  see  many  changes 
before  it  should  come  to  its  final  place  as  the  southern 
gateway  of  a  modern  and  united  nation.  The  Span 
iard  would  come  to  it  first,  and,  yielding  it  more  than 
once  to  the  French,  would  release  his  final  claim 
almost  three  hundred  years  later.  Twice  after  it  be- 


COTTON,    RICE,   AND   CANE  183 

came,  in  1803,  a  part  of  the  American  Union  it  would 
be  the  scene  of  bloody  strife,  and  only  now,  as  the 
twentieth  century  is  coming  in,  is  the  Louisiana  coun 
try  entering  upon  the  heritage  which  nature  has 
always  held  in  trust  for  it.  Thus  far  the  accidents  of 
foreign  intrigue  and  the  bonds  of  a  social  system 
have  laid  their  restraints  upon  the  land.  But  now 
the  Gulf  plains  will  be  joined  to  the  prairies,  the  ad 
joining  seas  are  held  in  friendly  and  progressive 
keeping,  the  isthmus  is  to  be  opened,  and  New 
Orleans  should  become  a  southern  rival  of  the  ports 
of  the  East. 

The  French  stamp  now  borne  by  the  region  was 
given  to  it  in  1700,  when  Iberville  came  from  the 
North  and  planted  his  colony.  La  Salle  had  tried  to 
do  what  his  later  countryman  did,  and  in  the  attempt 
had  come  to  his  tragic  end.  In  the  North  and  in  the 
South,  from  Minnesota  to  the  Gulf,  this  race  has  left 
the  marks  of  its  enterprise  and  daring,  but  nowhere 
has  the  impress  been  so  deep  and  so  lasting  as  in 
New  Orleans.  Thirty-eight  years  of  Spain,  from 
1762  to  1800,  made  little  difference,  and  then  Louisi 
ana  came  back  by  secret  treaty  to  France,  only  to  be 
transferred  by  Napoleon  to  the  new  power  in  the 
West  in  1803. 

The  Exposition  at  St.  Louis  will  commemorate 
this  sale,  and  will,  perhaps,  recall  to  some  that  the 
Louisiana  of  that  bargain  was  a  narrow  strip  as  now 
on  the  Gulf,  but  widened  on  the  Red  River,  leaped 
westward  again  along  the  Arkansas,  and  then  took 
in  everything  between  the  Mississippi  River  and  the 
Rocky  Mountains  up  to  the  British  boundary. 


1 84  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

The  backwoodsmen  of  the  Appalachians  had  won 
Kentucky  and  then  the  prairies,  and  now  had  faced 
the  issue  which  led  to  the  acquirement  of  the  west 
bank  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Great  Plains.  If  we 
had  not  bought  this  great  land,  we  must  in  the  end 
have  fought  for  it,  for  a  river  is  no  natural  boundary 
between  peoples.  It  may  be  difficult  to  cross  it  in 
face  of  an  enemy,  and  national  pride  may  sigh  for 
such  a  border,  as  France  for  the  Rhine,  but  rivers 
join  more  than  they  divide,  and  tend  to  concentrate 
the  life  that  resides  upon  their  opposing  slopes. 
When,  therefore,  Jefferson  bought  Louisiana  first, 
and  patched  up  the  Constitution  afterward,  and,  in 
the  same  year,  sent  Lewis  and  Clark  to  spy  out  the 
new  estate  and  go  to  the  Pacific,  he  was  following 
the  law  of  reason  and  of  nature. 

The  river  affects  the  life  of  the  people  in  very 
direct  ways,  and,  leaving  out  the  phenomena  of  the 
atmosphere,  is  less  easily  subdued  by  man  than  any 
other  natural  feature  of  our  domain.  Many  years 
ago  Captain  Eads  devised  and  planted  jetties  at  one 
of  the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi,  thus  narrowing  the 
channel,  making  the  flow  more  rapid,  and  turning 
the  waters  into  a  kind  of  broom  for  the  maintenance 
of  navigation.  Levees  are  built  which  restrain  the 
flood,  save  in  exceptional  years,  and  the  forewarning 
of  the  Weather  Bureau  adds  another  element  of  secu 
rity  to  those  who  live  below  the  level  of  the  river 
waters.  But  we  may  well  doubt  whether  man  can 
ever  harness  the  river  with  a  sure  hand.  The  Mis 
sissippi  often  flows  beneath  the  bluffs  that  rise  from 
her  waters  on  the  east.  She  has  made  these  bluffs 


186  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

. 

by  encroachment  and  undermining.  Because  bluff 
and  stream  adjoin  each  other  at  certain  places,  cities 
have  grown  at  these  eastern  bends,  —  Memphis, 
Natchez,  and  Vicksburg.  But  the  river  is  quite 
capable  of  forsaking  her  children  by  swinging  widely 
to  the  westward,  and  it  is  at  least  an  open  question 
whether  man  could  prevent,  or  afterward  reverse, 
such  a  change.  It  is  the  willful  behavior  of  the 
lower  river,  indeed,  which  brings  in  the  only  grave 
query  as  to  the  future  water  commerce  of  the  Lake 
regions  and  the  Gulf.  About  boats  drawing  a  few 
feet  of  water  there  need  be  no  fear,  for  skillful  pilots 
from  Mark  Twain's  day  until  now  can  "  learn  the 
river."  Nor  does  New  Orleans  as  a  seaport  depend 
upon  the  meanders  of  the  stream,  save  as  the  prod 
uce  of  the  north  might  in  some  measure  be  diverted 
along  lines  of  rail  to  other  Gulf  centers. 

Mr.  Robert  T.  Hill,  who,  more  than  anyone  else, 
has  been  the  geographer  of  Texas,  has  drawn  in  a 
few  strong  lines  a  picture  of  her  greatness.  She  is 
as  large  as  France ;  or  she  is  equal  to  the  Eastern 
and  Middle  states,  with  Maryland,  Kentucky,  and 
Ohio  thrown  in.  She  has  one-third  of  the  Gulf  coast 
of  the  United  States,  and  to  cross  her  territory  from 
east  to  west  by  rail  would  accomplish  one-third  of 
the  distance  from  Cape  Hatteras  to  Cape  Mendocino, 
or  take  one  from  New  York  to  Savannah,  Chicago, 
or  Labrador. 

In  her  broad  stretch  of  coastal  plain  Texas  is  like 
other  Gulf  states.  As  the  plains  lead  away  into  the 
interior  they  often  are  interspersed  with  belts  rich  in 
timber.  And  then  the  plains  rise  to  vast  plateaus, 


COTTON,    RICE.   AND    CANE  187 

lofty  and  arid,  bringing  the  state  into  relation  with 
the  high  plains  of  Kansas  and  the  north.  Still 
farther  west  Texas  embraces  an  area  three-fourths  as 
large  as  New  York,  belonging  to  the  southeastern 
Cordilleras,  and  culminating  in  mountains  from 
ten  thousand  to  thirteen  thousand  feet  in  height. 
Texas  is  therefore  a  southern  and  western  state, 
ranging  from  sandy  shore  to  lofty  mountains,  with 
almost  every  sort  of  soil,  climate,  and  surface  relief. 

This  vast  land  illustrates  in  its  own  way  the  prog 
ress  of  empire  in  America;  colonized  as  a  Mexican 
province '  by  Austin  with  his  emigrants  from  the 
north ;  won  to  national  independence  by  Houston 
and  his  handful  of  frontiersmen,  routing  the  Mexi 
can  army  and  capturing  Santa  Anna  in  a  sharp 
battle  lasting  eighteen  minutes ;  and  coming  nine 
years  later,  in  1845,  freely  into  the  American  Union. 
This  is  within  the  remembrance  of  many  who  yet 
live,  and  marks  the  movement  of  our  story  into  a 
region  whose  history  lies  in  the  future,  and  in  whose 
bounds  man  is  as  yet  far  from  his  ultimate  adjust 
ment  to  nature. 

The  tilling  of  the  soil  made  Southern  history  what 
it  was  down  to  the  Civil  War,  and  the  growth  of 
crops  is  a  matter  of  soil  and  climate ;  it  belongs,  in 
other  words,  to  geography.  But  here  also  we  must  V 
be  careful  not  to  charge  too  much  to  environment. 
The  soils  of  the  South  do  not  shut  one  up  to  tobacco, 
cotton,  sugar,  and  rice ;  and  it  was  the  conjunction  of 
these  with  the  holding  of  slaves  that  built  up  the 
social  system  that  ruled  so  long  under  Southern  skies. 
It  was  tobacco,  which,  in  the  plantations  on  the  Rap- 


i88 


GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 


pahannock  and  the  James,  first  showed  that  Africans 
could  be  imported  with  profit ;  and  then  followed  the 
cotton,  rice,  and  cane,  in  those  long  belts  of  semi- 
tropical  lowland  which  came  one  after  another 
under  the  dominion  of  the  colonists.  And  the  better 
and  worse  phases  of  slavery  seem  also  to  have  fol 
lowed  from  geographic  diversity  ;  for  in  the  planta- 


FIG.  37.     Residences  on  the  River  Front,  Charleston. 

tions  of  Virginia  the  master  lived  on  the  plantation 
where  the  slaves  wrought,  but  among  the  rice  and 
often  among  the  cotton  fields  of  the  black  belt  of 
South  Carolina  and  the  Gulf  the  master  was  a  non 
resident,  the  toil  was  severer,  and  irresponsible  over 
seers  were  too  often  left  to  their  own  will. 

In  1760  North  Carolina  had  two  hundred  thousand 
people,  of  whom  one-fourth  were  slaves.  In  South 
Carolina  conditions  of  freedom  and  servitude  were  re- 


COTTON,   RICE.   AND   CANE  189 

versed,  —  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  inhabit 
ants,  three-fourths  were  slaves.  The  soil  of  the  more 
southern  state  was  favorable  to  slave  labor. 

A  chief  outcome  of  this  system  of  things  was  the 
great  plantation  and  the  great  plantation  owner.  In 
the  cotton  belt  there  could  be  few  small  holdings  of 
land,  for  only  the  large  proprietor  could  keep  a  retinue 
of  slaves  and  grow  cotton  on  a  profitable  scale.  The 
planter  was  much  like  the  feudal  lord  of  older  days 
across  the  seas ;  he  was  lord  of  hundreds  or  thou 
sands  of  acres  and  of  the  human  population  dwelling 
on  them.  He  commanded  their  service,  and  he  gave 
them  protection,  but  whether  the  relation  was  kindly 
or  otherwise,  it  was  still  master  and  slave.  And  inci 
dental  to  this  plantation  system  there  had  to  be  an 
other  class,  —  the  poor  white.  He  could  not  acquire 
land,  unless  it  were  a  plot  of  the  poorer  soil,  or  back 
in  the  mountains ;  and  he  could  not  rise  in  trade  or 
in  mechanical  industry,  for  trade  was  looked  down 
upon,  and  manufacture  was  either  primitive  and  sim 
ple,  and  done  on  the  plantation,  or  it  was  elaborate 
and  skilled,  and  its  product  brought  from  England  or 
New  England,  in  return  for  consignments  of  cotton. 

The  Southern  gentleman,  generous,  hospitable, 
given  to  public  affairs,  often  imperious  and  passion 
ate,  brought  the  Old  World  pattern  of  society  down  to 
the  last  generation  in  America.  Yet  it  would  not  be 
true  to  say  that  the  cavalier  shaped  the  entire  South. 
No  Southern  state  is  more  typical  than  South  Caro 
lina,  and  the  early  settlers  of  South  Carolina  were  in 
large  measure  Puritan,  and  "the  economic  circum 
stance  which  chiefly  determined  the  complexion  in 


IQO  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

South  Carolina  was  the  cultivation  of  rice  and  in 
digo."  1  The  same  writer  asserts  that  a  single  slave 
could  in  a  year  produce  more  value  in  rice  or  indigo 
than  it  took  to  buy  him.  Remembering  human  na 
ture,  and  taking  account  of  the  times,  the  propulsion 
toward  slavery  was  strong.  But  taking  the  South  as 
a  whole,  we  must  see  that  the  ancestry  of  its  colo 
nists,  the  adaptation  of  its  soil,  and  what  we  may  call 
the  accidental  beginnings  of  slavery,  united  in  ways 
that  defy  analysis  to  produce  the  old  South. 

The  Southern  system  promoted  the  mastery  and 
strength  of  the  few,  and  produced  some  towering 
figures  in  the  early  and  middle  decades  of  the  last 
century.  The  family  was  safeguarded  and  made  per 
manent,  as  the  sons  of  the  fathers  lived  on  the  old 
plantations  and  accumulated  the  ancestral  advantages 
of  education,  wealth,  and  social  refinement.  "  In  the 
placid  air  of  their  enlightened  medievalism  lingered 
the  brave  ideals  of  courage  and  beauty  and  gracious 
dignity  .  .  .  and  there  arose  an  assertive,  sensitive, 
sincere,  dauntless  race  of  men,  esteeming  life  less 
than  honor,  and  loyalty  more  than  gold,  who  wrought 
with  a  sad,  Titanic  sincerity  for  their  doomed  cause."2 
This  triangular  social  system  could  not  develop  the 
riches  of  the  South,  for  no  measure  of  culture  or  per 
sonal  power  for  the  few  could  atone  for  the  lack  of  a 
sinewy,  forehanded,  and  intelligent  middle  class,  and 
a  great  army  of  free,  well-paid  toilers  in  field,  factory, 
and  mine,  whose  children  might  aspire  to  better  things 
than  their  fathers  could  achieve. 

1  Fiske,  "  Old  Virginia  and  her  Neighbors,"  II,  325. 

2  Edwin  A.  Alderman,  Educational  Review,  II,  30. 


COTTON,    RICE,   AND   CANE 


191 


The  prevalence  and  independence  of  the  great 
plantation,  and  the  absence  of  an  industrial  class, 
caused  in  the  old  South  a  dearth  of  towns  and  town 
life.  The  men  of  wealth  lived  in  the  country,  and 
for  the  poor  the  town  had  nothing  to  offer.  No  gen 
eral  statements  can  do  justice  to  this  condition  of  the 


FIG.  38.     Cotton  Levee,  New  Orleans. 

South,  and  we  shall  have  to  deal  a  little  in  figures. 
Remembering  that  the  towns  have  had  their  great 
growth  since  1865,  we  will  take  the  nine  seaboard 
states  from  Virginia  to  Texas. 

There  is  but  one  city  that  compares  in  size  with 
Cleveland,  Buffalo,  Pittsburg,  or  Milwaukee;  and  New 
Orleans,  with  her  present  population  of  287,000,  has 


192  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

gathered  more  than  one-third  of  her  people  since 
1870.  With  this  exception  there  is  no  town  of  100,- 
ooo  people  in  the  nine  states,  Richmond  and  Atlanta 
coming  nearest,  with  85,000  and  90,000.  In  1870  At 
lanta  had  but  22,000,  and  before  the  opening  of  the 
war  she  had  less  than  10,000  people.  In  this  entire 
chain  of  states  there  are  49  towns  of  more  than  10,000 
inhabitants,  while  Massachusetts  has  47  such  towns. 
If  we  seek  the  totals  in  both  cases  of  people  residing 
in  such  communities,  the  figures  stand  at  1,525,564 
for  the  nine  Southern  states,  and  2,050,862  for  Massa 
chusetts.  If  we  now  compare  the  paltry  8,000  square 
miles  of  the  New  England  commonwealth  with  the 
637,000  miles  of  the  nine,  the  result  is  little  less  than 
astounding.  There  was  vast  elbow-room  in  the  early 
South,  and  there  is  still  in  the  new,  and  a  hundred 
millions  of  people  could  live  within  the  valleys  and 
on  the  wide  plains  of  the  old  Confederacy. 

As  the  holdings  and  the  tillage  of  the  land  were  at 
the  heart  of  the  Southern  social  system,  so  the  first 
and  greatest  revolution  came  in  this  field  at  the  close 
of  the  Civil  War.  The  freeing  of  the  slaves  greatly 
reduced  the  property  of  all  the  plantation  owners, 
and  through  debts  and  enforced  neglect  of  their 
properties  for  four  years,  they  afterward  lost  what 
emancipation  might  otherwise  have  left  them.  They 
thus  could  neither  own,  nor,  in  the  absence  of  service, 
till  if  they  did  own,  great  estates,  and  the  lands  were 
in  large  measure  sold  and  broken  up  into  small 
holdings,  and  the  building  of  a  new  life  upon  an  in 
dustrial  as  well  as  an  agricultural  foundation  was 
begun,  The  mill  and  the  forge  and  coarse  loom  of 


COTTON,   RICE,   AND   CANE  193 

the  plantation  must  now  give  way  to  the  factory 
and  the  furnace,  and  such  towns  must  grow  as  meet 
the  traveler's  eye  in  Connecticut  or  Pennsylvania. 
Hence  such  cities  as  Atlanta,  Columbia,  Chatta 
nooga,  Knoxville,  and  Birmingham  have  sprung  into 
strength,  feeling  the  thrill  of  new  life  that  followed 
upon  the  trying  years  of  first  adjustment  to  the  new 
conditions. 

The  isolation  of  the  old  South  has  departed  with 
the  alien  institution  of  slavery,  and  with  it  is  passing 
the  conservative  spirit  that  held  the  states  of  the 
Gulf  from  onward  movements  of  thought.  Fiske 
does  not  hesitate  to  say  that  more  Puritanism  lingers 
in  the  South  to-day  than  is  left  in  New  England,  but 
the  young  South  is  modern  and  will  be  so,  as  she  de 
velops  the  school,  the  mill,  the  farm,  and  the  mine 
with  equal  hand.  Geographical  causes  have  wrought 
with  power  during  the  last  generation  to  bring  the 
North  and  the  South  to  common  ways  of  thinking 
and  doing,  and  perhaps  no  fair  and  intelligent  person 
on  either  side  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line  would  fail 
to  agree  with  a  son  of  the  South,  the  Honorable 
Hoke  Smith,  Secretary  of  the  Interior  in  Cleveland's 
second  administration,  when  he  says,  "  Had  it  not 
been  for  the  institution  of  slavery,  checking  white 
immigration  and  hindering  development,  the  South, 
with  natural  resources  in  its  favor  in  1860,  would 
have  been  the  greatest  manufacturing  and  mining,  as 
well  as  agricultural,  section  of  the  Union." 

Nothing  speaks  more  clearly  of  the  new  South 
than  the  growth  of  cotton  manufacture.  As  cotton 
was  first  in  the  ancient  system,  so  it  may  become  in 


194 


GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 


the  years  of  the  future.  The  mill  owners  of  New 
England  do  not  fear  what  may  be  done  in  Man 
chester,  or  anywhere  else  across  the  Atlantic,  but 
they  must  take  steady  account  of  what  is  doing  in 
the  Carolinas,  Georgia,  and  Alabama.  Before  the 
nineteenth  century  closed,  Massachusetts  had  sent  a 
commission  to  inquire  into  the  cotton  mills  of  South 


FlG.  39.     Cotton  Wharf  from  the  Battery,  Charleston. 

Carolina.  The  president  of  a  Southern  cotton  mill 
rings  out  no  uncertain  call  to  build  up  the  business 
of  the  home  land :  "  Every  bale  of  cotton  produced 
in  Georgia  should  be  spun  in  Georgia.  There  is  no 
such  thing  as  too  many  mills  in  the  South  so  long  as 
a  single  bale  of  cotton  is  shipped  to  New  England 
or  across  the  water."  Then  he  tells  the  Southern 
farmer  of  his  losses,  when  he  sells  cotton  at  $25  per 
bale,  and  later  brings  it  back  in  fabrics  or  garments 


COTTON,   RICE,    AND    CANE  195 

for  three  times  the  price,  enriching  the  rich  or  feed 
ing  the  distant  poor,  at  the  expense  of  those  at  home. 

All  that  is  lacking  at  the  South  is  the  skilled  super 
intendents  and  operatives,  and  these  are  already  avail 
able  in  large  degree.  The  streams  of  the  southern 
Appalachians  will  furnish  perennial  water-power,  if 
indeed,  as  now  seems  likely,  their  forests  are  rescued 
and  preserved.  If  water  be  lacking,  coal  is  plentiful, 
and  in  many  parts  is  near  at  hand.  Labor  will  be 
abundant,  when  the  colored  population  have  had 
another  decade  of  industrial  training.  In  one  of  the 
new  mill  towns  of  the  South,  visited  by  a  Northern 
writer,  coal  was  bought  at  $1.50  per  ton,  while  com 
petitors  in  Massachusetts  were  paying  three  times 
that  price  and  more.  The  saving  in  freights  was  $2 
per  bale  ;  and  while  these  figures  are  not  the  average, 
they  point  to  enormous  savings  and  untold  economic 
gains  for  the  Southern  states,  by  following  the 
simplest  laws  of  geography,  and  using  their  superb 
facilities  for  working  up  the  raw  materials  of  the 
field,  forest,  and  mine. 

Cotton  did  not  begin  to  take  its  place  in  Southern 
industry  until  1880.  In  1881  the  exposition  at 
Atlanta  set  the  ball  rolling.  On  one  of  the  mornings 
of  that  summer,  cotton  was  picked  from  the  plant  in 
sight  of  the  fair  grounds,  spun,  woven,  and  made  into 
a  suit,  which  appeared  later  in  the  day  on  the 
person  of  the  governor  of  Georgia.  Single  establish 
ments  in  Massachusetts  now  pay  more  in  wages  than 
did  all  the  cotton  mills  of  the  South  combined  in 
1880.  But  in  1900  there  were  more  establishments 
in  the  South  than  in  New  England,  400  to  332. 


196  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

This  does  not  mean  that  the  South  is  now  first,  for 
the  concerns  are  smaller,  but  she  grew  from  610,000 
spindles  in  1880  to  4,298,000  in  1900.  In  the  latter 
year  her  capital  was  $124,000,000,  as  against  New 
England's  $272,000,000;  but  her  percentage  of  in 
crease  in  the  previous  ten  years  was  131,  and  that  of 
the  older  home  of  the  industry  was  12.  The  south 
ern  cotton  crop  of  the  early  eighties  was  about 
doubled  in  the  last  years  of  the  nineties. 

But  cotton  is  not  king,  though  it  may  long  be  among 
the  great  single  interests  in  the  South.  There  is  no 
larger  factor  in  the  present  unfolding  of  the  South  than 
the  diversification  of  her  crops.  The  wasteful  days, 
when  cotton  and  tobacco  wore  out  the  soils,  and  these 
were  abandoned  for  fresh  fields,  are  over,  and  rotation 
and  variety  have  come  in  to  save  the  soils,  fill  up  the 
wastes,  give  rich  and  poor  a  place,  and  develop  the 
riches  of  the  land  to  their  utmost.  There  is  as  much 
variety  of  soil  and  air  as  in  the  North,  and  almost 
everything  that  can  be  raised  north  of  the  Ohio  can 
be  raised  south  of  it,  with  a  wealth  of  characteristic 
fibers,  grains,  fruits,  and  timbers  thrown  in.  "  Loca 
tions  can  be  found  in  which  wheat,  corn,  cotton,  and 
fruit  can  be  raised  in  the  same  field."  1 

It  is  the  day  of  grain  elevators  in  Galveston,  wheat 
conventions  in  Georgia,  and  roller  mills  in  South 
Carolina. 

Thus  the  newer  products  are  putting  some  of  the 
older  interests  far  in  the  rear,  as  sugar,  which  in 
Louisiana  holds  its  place,  and  may  always  remain  a 
landmark  of  the  past,  even  while  the  product  of  the 

1  Hoke  Smith,  North  American  Review,  1894,  Vol.  CLIX,  p.  134. 


COTTON,    RICE,   AND   CANE  197 

beet  with  strides  is  overtaking  it.  But  another  an 
cient  crop  still  grows,  in  rice  fields  of  increasing  size, 
cutting  in  half  the  importations  of  the  grain,  and  roll 
ing  up  to  vast  values  in  Louisiana  and  Texas.  Here, 
too,  the  South  has  felt  the  enlivening  touch  of  modern 
industry  and  practical  science,  for  she  has  learned  the 
uses  of  irrigation  and  has  largely  made  her  gains 
through  the  importation  of  a  new  variety  of  rice  from 
Japan,  under  the  care  of  the  Department  of  Agricul 
ture.  It  would  be  rash  to  say  that  the  South  will 
not  grow  her  own  and  her  neighbor's  tea,  and  she  is 
releasing  herself  from  the  grip  of  the  herders  and 
packers  of  the  plains  and  prairies. 

What  more  does  the  South  need  to  warrant  the 
largest  prophecy  for  her  future?  If  it  is  lumber,  she 
has  perhaps  the  largest  reserves  yet  available  in  the 
United  States.  If  it  is  iron,  she  has  it  in  veins  of  un 
limited  extent.  If  it  is  coal,  she  can  supply  it  through 
the  long  future  from  every  Appalachian  state.  If  it 
is  fertilizer,  she  has  the  phosphates  of  Florida  and 
South  Carolina  ;  and  she  has  building  stones,  clays, 
asphalt,  petroleum,  salt,  and  gold.  Her  Appalachian 
uplands,  with  water-power,  timber,  iron,  and  coal  are 
sandwiched  between  her  lowlands  with  cotton,  rice, 
corn,  and  fruit.  And  she  is  fringed  by  the  sea, 
whose  warm,  moist  breath  gives  her  blossom  and 
fruit  without  stint,  and  anchors  in  quiet  waters  at 
Charleston,  at  Key  West,  at  Mobile  and  New  Orleans 
and  Galveston  the  growing  fleets  of  her  commerce. 
Already  it  has  been  projected  to  build  for  a  hundred 
miles  or  more,  across  the  coral  islets  and  their  shal 
low  straits,  a  railway  from  the  mainland  to  Key  West, 


I98 


GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 


where,  with  the  new  prosperity  of  the  Antilles  and 
the  new  isthmian  canal  and  the  new  South  at  the 
gateway  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  one  of  the  greatest 
American  cities  may  in  a  few  generations  rise.  The 
southern  man  cares  little  for  the  issues  of  the  past, 
for  the  golden  chances  of  to-day  and  the  beckonings 
of  a  future  too  big  for  his  imagining  are  before  him. 


aJM 


FIG.  40.     Mississippi  Steamer  at  Levee,  Mobile. 

It  is  easy  and  safe  to  predict  an  era  not  far  away 
when  the  Appalachians  and  their  Piedmont  fringes 
shall  be  as  full  of  wheels  as  New  England,  sending 
their  products  as  widely  ;  when  northern  Alabama 
and  Birmingham  shall  be  another  western  Pennsyl 
vania  and  Pittsburg ;  when  the  commerce  of  Galves- 
ton  will  compare  with  that  of  Boston,  and  New 
Orleans  become  a  rival  of  Chicago.  No  region  of 


COTTON,    RICE,   AND   CANE  199 

the  United  States  is  like  the  South  in  variety ;  she 
has  the  water-power  and  spindles  of  New  England, 
the  lumber  of  the  far  Northwest,  the  soils  of  the 
prairies,  the  coal  of  Pennsylvania,  the  iron  of  Minne 
sota.  In  every  one  of  these  she  is  a  first,  or  a  good 
second,  and  in  the  total  outrivals  all.  Her  incubus  is 
gone,  the  carpetbagger  is  gone  or  has  left  his  sons 
to  honest  citizenship,  and  the  negro  is  her  greatest 
problem  ;  but  this  will  be  solved  by  industry  and  the 
training  of  the  hand,  with  growing  intelligence  and 
the  building  of  self-respecting  character.  Not  many 
years  will  pass  before  sectionalism,  already  dissolving, 
will  be  lost  in  the  industrial,  agricultural,  and  com 
mercial  unity  of  what  for  convenience  we  shall  always 
call  one  of  the  great  "  sections  "  of  our  country. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE    CIVIL    WAR 

AFTER  the  Civil  War  had  closed,  a  citizen  of  the 
South  said  to  Horatio  Seymour :  "  The  North  would 
never  have  beaten  us  if  it  had  not  been  for  our  rivers. 
They  ran  from  the  north  into  the  heart  of  our  coun 
try,  and  we  could  not  get  away  from  you."  This 
must  not  be  taken  to  mean  too  much ;  but  it  raises 
many  questions  and  may  set  us  upon  thought.  The 
Mississippi  does  flow  from  north  to  south,  and  joins 
the  prairies  and  plains  to  the  lowlands  of  the  Gulf. 
Hence,  that  man  of  the  Northwest  was  right  who 
prophesied  that  the  Mississippi  Valley  must  belong 
to  one  nation.  But  the  invading  armies  went  down 
rather  than  up,  because  in  no  other  way  could  the 
North  force  the  South  to  stay  in  the  Union.  So  far 
as  natural  highways  are  concerned,  Tennessee  could 
overrun  Illinois  as  easily  as  Illinois  could  hurry  her 
battalions  into  Tennessee. 

There  is  no  boundary  of  much  military  significance 
between  the  North  and  the  South,  and  indeed  the 
great  physiographic  belts  cross  the  line  and  lie  partly 
in  one  section  and  partly  in  the  other.  New  Jersey 
and  Maryland  are  in  no  important  ways  different 
from  Virginia  and  South  Carolina,  for  all  belong  to 
the  Atlantic  coastal  plain.  The  valleys  and  moun- 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  2OI 

tains  of  the  Appalachians  are  found  in  Pennsylvania, 
and  they  are  found  in  Tennessee.  And  the  lowlands 
of  the  Mississippi  continue  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  while  farther  west  the  uplands  of  Missouri 
and  Kansas  are  separated  by  no  barrier  from  those  of 
Arkansas  and  Texas.  East  of  the  Rocky  Mountains 
the  natural  land  units  were  divided  between  the  op 
posing  groups  of  states. 

We  may  indeed  trace  a  line  of  rivers  and  count  it 
for  what  it  is  worth  as  a  boundary.  The  Potomac 
made  such  a  limit  with  Maryland  and  the  District  of 
Columbia  on  the  one  side  and  Virginia  on  the  other, 
but  the  Potomac  did  not  keep  Lee  from  Gettysburg 
or  Grant  from  Richmond.  Maryland  was  in  senti 
ment  almost  as  much  a  Confederate  as  it  was  a  Union 
state,  and  West  Virginia  was  sliced  off  and  joined  the 
North.  By  any  nice  theory  of  river  barriers,  the 
Ohio  should  have  marked  the  line ;  but  Kentucky  on 
her  south  bank  clung  to  the  Union  as  a  common 
wealth,  while  thousands  of  her  men  entered  the 
southern  army.  On  the  other  hand,  many  in  south 
ern  Illinois  and  Indiana  were  in  close  sympathy  with 
the  Confederacy.  Similar  things  might  be  written 
about  the  Missouri  River  and  the  halves  of  the  great 
state  which  are  made  by  it.  These  streams  had  no 
large  importance  for  the  war,  therefore,  because  they 
ran  through  states  checkered  with  opposing  ideas, 
and  because  the  Northerner  in  accomplishing  his  aim 
had  to  go  where  the  Southerner  was,  and  fight  his 
battles  there. 

But  there  were  rivers  of  the  utmost  importance  in 
the  strife  on  both  sides  of  the  Appalachians.  In 


202  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

Virginia  the  Potomac,  the  Rappahannock,  the  York, 
the  James,  and  the  Appomattox  all  flow  southeast 
ward  through  the  lowlands  to  their  mouths  in  sea  or 
river.  Washington  is  on  the  Potomac,  Richmond  is 
on  the  James,  and  every  movement  of  the  armies 
of  Virginia  between  the  hostile  capitals  had  to  take 
account  of  these  streams  of  the  coastal  plain.  And 
to  the  west  was  the  Shenandoah  River  and  its  valley, 
a  road  which  neither  the  Confederate  nor  the  Union 
commander  was  ever  at  liberty  to  forget. 

No  less  a  critical  factor  in  the  long  struggle  was 
the  Mississippi  River  from  Cairo  to  the  Gulf.  In  the 
War  of  1812  Andrew  Jackson  had  made  his  name 
and  paved  his  way  to  the  presidency  by  crushing 
a  British  army  with  his  hardy  Westerners  at  New 
Orleans.  But  from  1861  to  the  summer  of  1863  the 
great  river  was  to  yield  its  points  of  advantage  to  this 
side  and  to  that,  after  fierce  land  attacks,  bitter  naval 
encounters,  and  prolonged  sieges.  If  we  leave  out 
the  Atlantic  coastal  plain,  the  rest  of  the  Confederacy 
was  about  cut  in  halves  by  the  Mississippi.  Its  pos 
session  was,  therefore,  of  the  utmost  importance  to 
both  sides.  To  the  Confederates  it  was  necessary, 
because  to  hold  it  was  to  have  free  communication 
for  their  armies  and  for  supplies  between  the  east 
and  the  three  great  states  that  lay  west  of  the  river. 
It  was  correspondingly  the  object  of  the  Federals  to 
cut  this  line,  and  thus  isolate  from  each  other  the  two 
groups  of  the  Southern  states. 

The  situation  was  much  like  that  of  the  thirteen 
colonies  in  relation  to  the  Hudson  in  the  Revolution. 
In  both  cases  we  have  a  chain  of  states  crossed  by  a 


204  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

navigable  river,  and  the  important  points  on  one, 
New  York  and  Albany,  may  well  be  compared  to 
New  Orleans  and  Vicksburg  or  Memphis.  And  if 
Grant  had  failed  in  his  attempt  in  1863  as  Howe  and 
Burgoyne  failed  in  theirs  in  1777,  the  South  might 
have  maintained  its  independence,  at  least  for  a  time, 
as  the  colonies  had  done. 

A  little  to  the  east;  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee, 
are  two  other  rivers  which  figure  constantly  in  the 
first  years  of  the  Civil  War,  and  often  in  close  rela 
tion  to  the  Mississippi.  One  of  these  is  the  Tennes 
see,  born  in  the  mountains  of  North  Carolina  and 
Tennessee,  pursuing  its  way  down  the  Appalachian 
Valley,  turning  aside  at  Chattanooga  to  cut  through 
the  plateau  and  cross  northern  Alabama,  where  it 
changes  its  course  and  flows  almost  directly  north 
across  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  to  the  Ohio.  An 
other  stream,  the  Cumberland,  rising  in  the  plateau 
of  eastern  Kentucky,  makes  a  bend  much  like  that  of 
its  southern  neighbor,  southward  by  Nashville,  and 
then,  turning  north,  runs  closely  parallel  to  the  Ten 
nessee,  and  enters  the  Ohio  but  a  few  miles  above  it. 

The  Tennessee  was  to  see  stirring  times  at  Chatta 
nooga  and  Knoxville.  Both  rivers  could  be  navigated 
by  gunboats  a  long  way  above  the  Ohio,  and  both 
were  to  be  guarded  and  stubbornly  fought  for  in  the 
early  days  of  the  conflict. 

If  there  had  been  no  Appalachians,  the  northern 
people  would  have  had  a  very  different  problem  to 
study  and  solve.  But  for  these,  cotton  and  tobacco 
would  have  been  spread  where  now  are  bold  moun 
tains,  forested  slopes,  and  a  temperate  climate.  Cot- 


THE   CIVIL  WAR  205 

ton  and  tobacco  would  have  brought  slavery  and  the 
plantation  with  them,  and  the  South  would  have  been 
"  solid  "  in  a  sense  that  has  never  belonged  to  that 
word.  Instead  of  scores  of  thousands  of  Federal 
soldiers  from  the  uplands  and  forests,  there  would 
have  been  a  vast  increase  of  the  Confederate  armies, 
and  what  might  have  been  the  issue  of  such  a  contest 
we  can  never  know.  Virginia  was  divided  against 
itself,  and  the  mountains  went  to  the  Union,  and  the 
plains  joined  hands  with  the  South.  Even  in  Ten 
nessee  were  many  Union  citizens,  and  it  was  at  one 
time  a  prime  object  of  the  administration  at  Washing 
ton  to  bring  an  army  into  eastern  Tennessee,  to  co 
operate  with  the  great  body  of  sympathizers  with  the 
North  that  was  to  be  found  in  the  mountain  valleys 
and  on  the  Cumberland  plateau. 

If  there  could  have  been  any  doubt  before,  the 
great  conflict  seems  to  have  proved  that  our  land, 
from  east  to  west,  is  cut  out  for  one  people.  The 
Appalachians  were  a  great  barrier  in  colonial  days, 
but  we  cannot  think  of  them  as  a  national  boundary, 
now  that  the  forests  are  so  largely  cut  away  and  the 
highways  of  traffic  run  everywhere.  If  this  were  not 
enough,  there  are  open  gateways  betokening  unity 
along  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Mohawk,  and  the 
wide  Gulf  plains  wrap  completely  around  the  south 
ern  end  of  the  mountains,  joining  the  plains  of  the 
Atlantic  with  the  prairies  of  the  Mississippi.  The 
Rocky  Mountains  alone,  within  our  domain,  might 
conceivably  divide  nations,  and  now,  almost  forty 
years  after  1865,  we  can  look  with  a  bird's  eye  upon 
the  physical  features  of  the  United  States  and  say 


206  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

that  final  union  was  inevitable.  The  only  other  pos 
sible  thing  would  be  a  group  of  changing  and  quar 
reling  powers,  for  two  compact,  stable  republics  could 
not  arbitrarily  cross  all  lines  of  geographic  control 
and  live  side  by  side  in  peace. 


FIG.  42.     Vicksburg  from  the  West.      Photograph  by  A.  L.  Blanks, 
Vicksburg. 

Professor  Shaler,  in  his  history  of  his  native  com 
monwealth,  Kentucky,  has  described  what  •  he  well 
calls  the  "  geological  distribution  of  politics  "  in  that 
state.  The  Blue  Grass  region,  rich  in  its  limestone 
soils,  was  hospitable  to  large  holdings  of  land,  the 
slave  system  was  dominant,  and  here  were  the  strong 
southern  majorities.  The  poorer  sandstone  soils,  on 
the  other  hand,  especially  in  the  large  and  wilder 
tracts  of  eastern  Kentucky,  supported  a  poorer  popu- 


THE   CIVIL   WAR  2O/ 

lation  which  was  commonly  hostile  to  slavery,  and 
furnished  many  hard  fighters  for  the  Union  armies. 

Thus  the  rivers,  the  soils,  and  the  reliefs  of  the 
land  are  all  to  be  counted  in  if  we  would  appreciate 
the  causes  that  led  to  the  war,  or  would  understand 
its  campaigns  and  its  battles.  Before  we  study  some 
of  the  more  special  problems  we  must  recall  one  very 
general  condition  that  had  a  profound  bearing  on  the 
fortunes  of  the  South,  namely,  their  almost  exclusive 
agriculture.  They  did  not  have  the  mills  and  the 
shops  to  make  what  they  needed  for  peace  or  for 
war ;  and  when  northern  gunboats  at  last  made  the 
blockade  of  southern  ports  effective,  the  pressure  on 
the  South  was  severe,  for  she  could  neither  send  out 
the  cotton  which  would  give  her  money  to  buy,  nor 
could  she  count  on  bringing  in,  after  she  had  bought 
them,  the  munitions  of  war  or  the  necessaries  of  life. 

Not  trying  to  follow,  in  this  short  sketch,  the  strict 
lines  of  division  into  military  departments,  we  can 
see  in  a  general  way  how  the  centers  or  lines  of 
action  located  themselves.  For  the  South  to  hold 
independence,  or  for  the  North  to  enforce  union, 
there  must  be  a  struggle  between  the  Appalachians 
and  the  sea ;  and  because  the  two  capitals  lay,  one 
in  Virginia  and  the  other  on  its  edge,  barely  more 
than  one  hundred  miles  apart,  the  first  and  last  great 
operations  of  the  war  were  between  the  Potomac  and 
the  Appomattox.  And  because  the  South  had  an 
extended  shore-line  and  many  harbors,  and  foreign 
commerce  was  vital  to  her  success,  swiftly  impro 
vised  navies  on  both  sides  made  the  ocean  border  the 
theater  of  some  of  the  hottest  and  bloodiest  fighting 


208  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

of  the  war.  West  of  the  Appalachians  lay  the  Mis 
sissippi  Valley  and  a  river  whose  final  holding  was 
vital  to  success  on  either  side.  Here  lines  many  hun 
dred  miles  long  had  to  be  maintained ;  here  rivers 
were  fortified,  railways  were  few  but  important ;  here 
the  great  generals  of  the  war  were  taught,  and  here 
some  of  the  most  brilliant  battles  of  the  war  were 
fought.  It  was  not  until  this  great  campaign  ground 
was  in  full  possession  of  northern  arms  that  there 
could  be  sufficient  concentration  in  Virginia  to  bring 
hostilities  to  a  close. 

The  first  line  of  outposts  established  by  the  south 
ern  forces  lay  in  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  well 
down  toward  the  Ohio  River.  If  this  could  be  held, 
there  could  be  no  effective  or  lasting  invasion  of  the 
lower  Mississippi  country  —  unless  it  came  from  the 
sea.  And  such  a  line  would  serve  as  a  base  from 
which  to  win  the  Ohio  and  harass  or  overrun  the 
states  lying  to  the  north.  The  main  artery  to  be 
held  was  the  Mississippi  River  itself. 

Cairo,  at  the  junction  of  the  Ohio  with  the  Missis 
sippi,  was  held  by  the  newly  commissioned  General 
Grant.  About  a  dozen  miles  down  the  river,  upon 
a  high  bluff  on  the  Kentucky  side,  was  Columbus, 
which  the  Confederates  had  strongly  fortified,  plant 
ing  there  120  guns.  This  was  the  Confederate  left, 
and  is  a  good  sample  of  those  fortified  points  mainly 
on  the  east  side  of  the  Mississippi,  well  suited  by 
nature  for  military  defense,  because  the  river  offered 
a  natural  moat  on  the  west,  and  the  batteries  could 
hurl  a  plunging  fire  upon  vessels  going  up  or  down. 

Sixty  miles  or  a  little  more  to  the  east,  the  Ten- 


THE   CIVIL   WAR  2OQ 

nessee  and  Cumberland  rivers  in  parallel  courses  flow 
north  across  the  southern  boundary  of  Kentucky. 
Just  south  of  the  line,  in  Tennessee,  Fort  Henry  had 
been  erected  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Tennessee,  and 
Fort  Donelson  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Cumberland. 
These  two  points  of  defense  were  scarcely  a  dozen 
miles  apart,  and  so  long  as  they  were  held,  Tennessee 
could  not  be  invaded  from  the  north  along  the  val 
leys.  This  was  especially  important,  because  Nash 
ville  lay  on  the  banks  of  the  Cumberland,  and  it  was 
appropriate,  therefore,  that  Donelson  should  be  the 
stronger  of  the  two  forts. 

About  eighty  miles  northeastward  from  Fort  Donel 
son  was  Bowling  Green,  at  the  point  where  the  rail 
way  from  Louisville  forked  toward  Nashville  and 
Memphis.  Here  was  the  Confederate  right,  and  the 
line,  like  a  crescent,  swung  down  into  Tennessee, 
across  the  twin  rivers,  and  back  into  Kentucky,  to 
Columbus,  on  the  Mississippi.  It  was  the  object  of 
the  South  to  hold  this  line,  and  any  proposals  to  push 
it  toward  the  Ohio  or  invade  the  North  were  dismissed. 
But  the  North  had  no  alternative  but  to  try  to  break 
the  line.  A  step  in  this  direction  had  been  taken 
when  Grant  sent  a  force  up  the  Ohio  and  occupied 
Paducah,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee. 

It  was  possible  to  make  a  direct  effort  to  open  the 
Mississippi,  and  this  at  first  was  planned,  but  this  in 
volved  great  difficulties.  Columbus  was  likened  to 
Gibraltar :  ships  alone  could  not  destroy  this  secure 
perch  on  lofty  bluffs.  A  land  force  could  not  take 
it,  so  long  as  connection  along  the  river  was  open. 
To  have  attempted  the  post  would  have  involved  a 


210  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

siege,  and  might  have  anticipated  much  that  happened 
about  Vicksburg  more  than  a  year  later. 

General  Halleck  decided  upon  a  different  plan, 
which  was  carried  out  by  Grant  and  Admiral  Foote. 
The  center  of  the  line  was  to  be  broken  by  a  land 
and  water  attack  upon  Fort  Henry  and  Fort  Donel- 
son.  If  these  could  be  carried,  the  two  rivers  would 
be  open,  Nashville  would  be  exposed,  and  the  whole 
southern  line  would  be  pushed  southward.  And  so 
it  turned  out :  Fort  Henry  was  taken,  and  as  soon 
as  Fort  Donelson  was  invested,  Bowling  Green  was 
abandoned ;  and  as  soon  as  it  fell,  Nashville  was  given 
up  also;  and  on  the  west,  Polk  withdrew  his  stores 
and  forces  to  Island  No.  10  and  New  Madrid,  thirty 
miles  or  more  down  the  river.  The  stream  there 
makes  a  great  double  bend,  and  the  town,  although 
ten  miles  northwest  of  the  island,  is  still  down  stream 
from  it.  But  the  possession  of  the  Tennessee  and 
Cumberland  rendered  this  position  and  outpost  too 
exposed  to  be  long  held,  and  the  next  withdrawal  was 
to  Fort  Pillow,  fifty  miles  down  the  river  in  Tennessee. 
It  was  much  like  Columbus,  being  on  a  high  bluff  east 
of  the  river ;  but  the  flanking  movement  on  the  east 
had  carried  the  Federal  forces  still  farther  south,  and 
the  great  battle  of  Shiloh  was  fought,  inflicting  vast 
losses  upon  both  sides,  but  leaving  the  Federals  in 
possession  of  the  Memphis  and  Charleston  Railroad, 
and  jeopardizing  such  positions  as  Fort  Pillow  and 
Memphis  on  the  Mississippi.  The  issue  of  the  naval 
combats  at  both  these  points  was  favorable  to  the 
North,  and  the  positions  were  yielded  without  siege 
or  land  operations  of  any  kind. 


THE    CIVIL   WAR  211 

Our  object  must  not  be  lost  from  view,  which  is  not 
the  story  of  marches,  attacks,  or  capitulations,  but  to 
see  how  the  large  lines  of  movement  were  made 
ready  by  nature,  and  seized  upon  by  men  versed  in 
military  strategy.  It  was  seen  by  Halleck  that  fugi 
tive  operations  west  of  the  Mississippi  could  have  no 
great  relations,  although  they  had  been  important  to 
the  North,  since,  in  the  first  months  of  strife,  Missouri 
had  been  restrained  from  going  out  of  the  Union. 
But  now  the  river  and  the  states  to  the  east  must  be 
held  by  the  side  that  would  win.  Everything  west 
of  the  Appalachians  belonged  to  the  combatant  who 
could  hold  the  Mississippi,  the  Tennessee,  and  the 
Cumberland.  If  the  North  could  do  this,  it  would 
cut  off  Texas,  Louisiana,  and  Arkansas  from  the 
Eastern  states  of  the  Confederacy,  and  center  the 
conflict  on  the  Potomac  and  the  James.  Halleck  saw 
this  without  question,  though  it  required  his  greater 
subordinate  officer  and  two  years  of  tenacious  strug 
gle  to  bring  it  to  pass. 

The  campaigns  around  Vicksburg  illustrate  both 
the  local  and  the  general  problems  of  the  Mississippi 
in  those  days  of  war.  Most  of  the  river  above  that 
point  had  been  opened  by  Federal  gunboats,  while 
Farragut  from  below  had  taken  New  Orleans  and 
Baton  Rouge,  leaving  only  Vicksburg  and  closely  as 
sociated  fortresses  in  the  hands  of  the  Confederates. 
Farragut  had  run  under  the  Vicksburg  guns,  and  said 
it  could  be  done  again  ;  but  this  would  not  do  for  reg 
ular  transmission  of  men  and  supplies.  So  long  as 
this  single  point  could  be  maintained,  therefore,  the 
South  could  keep  her  enemy  from  using  the  river,  and 


212  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

the  enemy  could  not  keep  her  from  such  communica 
tion  as  she  might  wish  between  the  Eastern  and  West 
ern  Gulf  states.  So  strong  was  the  position  that  the 
repeated  efforts  of  such  commanders  as  Sherman  and 
Grant  were  foiled,  and  one  plan  after  another  was 
given  up. 

Vicksbtirg  is  one  of  those  river  towns  which  have 
been  determined  by  a  bluff,  at  the  base  of  which  flows 
the  stream.  Upon  any  good  map  of  the  region  there 
is  evidence  enough  that  the  river  does  not  always 
keep  the  same  track ;  but  here  for  the  present  is  the 
bend,  and  on  the  slopes  to  the  east  is  the  town, 
stretching  up  to  the  low  plateau  above.  It  is  a  rule 
of  meandering  streams  also  to  cut  a  deeper  channel 
on  the  outer  curve  of  the  bend,  and  thus  we  can  see 
two  reasons  for  the  growth  of  a  town,  for  there  was  a 
commanding  site  high  and  dry  above  the  swamps  and 
bayous  on  the  west,  and  there  was  approach  for  the 
largest  vessels  to  the  wharves  at  the  base  of  the 
bluffs. 

Both  above  and  below  Vicksburg  there  is  a  con 
siderable  tract  of  the  low  bottom  land  lying  between 
the  Mississippi  and  the  base  of  the  bluff.  North  of 
Vicksburg,  the  Yazoo  River  follows  the  foot  of  the 
escarpment,  and  then,  through  a  maze  of  lakes  and 
swamps,  bears  to  the  west  and  enters  the  Mississippi. 
Vicksburg  is  on  the  steep  slope  that  separates 
the  bottoms  from  the  upland.  West  of  the  city  a 
great  meander  doubles  the  river  on  itself,  as  it  flows 
first  to  the  northeast,  and  then  abruptly  southwest, 
under  the  city.  Above  is  the  Yazoo,  sending  its 
several  mouths  into  the  Mississippi  as  the  greater 


214  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

river  sends  her  distributaries  into  the  Gulf.  One  of 
these  is  Chickasaw  Bayou,  under  the  Walnut  Hills. 
From  the  river  opposite  Vicksburg  runs  the  railway 
to  Shreveport,  and  north  and  south  of  this  road  is  a 
tortuous  network  of  bayous  and  swamps. 

A  fleet  could  not  capture  the  town,  perched  upon 
its  heights.  And  when  Grant  at  last  was  free  to 
make  the  trial,  he  proposed  to  come  at  his  goal  by  a 
combined  attack,  sending  Sherman  down  the  river  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Yazoo,  and  coming  himself  from  the 
northeast.  The  cowardly  surrender  of  Holly  Springs 
by  an  unworthy  subordinate,  and  the  loss  of  vast  sup 
plies  stored  there,  compelled  Grant  to  abandon  his 
plan  until  a  new  base  could  be  established.  But 
meantime  Sherman  had  gone  down  the  river,  only  to 
find  himself  among  the  marshes  of  the  lower  Yazoo, 
exposed  to  the  sharpshooters  and  batteries  of  the 
towering  wall  on  the  east,  and  without  the  support 
that  was  planned.  He  failed  completely  and  with 
drew,  to  share  the  fortunes  of  Grant  when  later  it  was 
decided  to  make  the  river  the  great  line  of  approach 
from  the  north. 

Grant's  problem  was  to  get  a  foothold  on  the 
plateau  back  of  Vicksburg  and  at  the  same  time 
keep  an  open  line  of  communication  from  the  north. 
His  attempt  to  come  directly  to  his  goal  had  failed, 
and  he  will  now  try  it  from  the  lowlands  and  the 
river,  moving  down  in  conjunction  with  Porter's  fleet. 
He  does  not  attempt  the  bluffs  north  of  Vicksburg  and 
east  of  the  Yazoo,  for  the  obstacles  were  too  great 
and  Sherman's  failure  there  had  made  them  known. 
He  does  try  to  complete  what  had  the  year  before 


0    >: 


2l6  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

been  begun,  —  to  turn  the  Mississippi  across  the  nar 
row  tongue  of  land  within  the  bend,  at  a  point  four 
miles  below  the  city.  If  this  could  have  been  done, 
there  would  have  been  no  need  to  capture  Vicksburg ; 
for,  isolated  from  the  river,  it  would  have  been  no 
more  important  than  any  similar  town.  But  Grant 
failed  in  this,  and  again  nature  gave  her  favor  to  the 
Confederates.  Indeed,  such  was  their  confidence  in 
the  difficulties  of  the  ground,  that  the  lowlands  were 
practically  unoccupied,  the  batteries  commanding  the 
river  being  thought  sufficient.  Unsuccessful  efforts 
also  were  made  to  find  or  cut  navigable  channels 
among  the  bayous  on  the  west,  between  Milliken's 
bend  on  the  north  and  New  Carthage  on  the  south. 

What  Grant  did  was  to  take  his  army  swiftly  across 
the  watery  lowlands,  —  while  Porter  ran  his  boats 
under  Vicksburg  loaded  with  supplies,  —  cross  the 
Mississippi  thirty  miles  below  the  city,  cut  loose  from 
his  supplies,  seize  Jackson  and  the  region  east  and 
south  of  Vicksburg,  fight  several  battles  upon  the 
provisions  carried  in  knapsacks,  keep  reinforcements 
from  coming  to  Pemberton,  drive  him  into  Vicksburg, 
and  open  communication  with  the  Mississippi  north 
of  the  city.  The  difficulties  interposed  by  physio 
graphic  conditions  were  so  great  that  a  much  larger 
army  must  have  been  required  by  a  commander  of 
less  judgment,  promptness,  and  daring. 

The  underground  formation  in  and  about  the  town 
to  which  siege  was  now  laid  was  such  as  to  give  dis 
tinct  shape  to  the  events  of  the  hour.  The  great 
mass  in  which  the  Mississippi  has  carved  the  high 
bluffs  consists  largely  of  tough  clay,  so  coherent  that 


THE   CIVIL   WAR  217 

vertical  walls  of  it  will  stand  for  many  years.  Thus 
we  can  see  how  easy  it  was,  when  the  bursting  of 
shells  went  on  week  after  week,  until  scarcely  a 
dwelling  was  unscathed,  to  burrow  in  the  earth,  and 
live,  as  thousands  did,  in  subterranean  rooms.  The 
same  conditions  made  it  easy  to  open  tunnels,  in  which 
mines  could  be  sprung.  The  plateau  also  is  furrowed 
by  short  ravines  which  have  been  made  by  the  streams 
that  drain  the  heights  toward  the  river.  They  could 
only  be  short ;  for  a  dozen  miles  east  of  the  city  the 
Big  Black  River  runs  parallel  with  the  Yazoo  and 
Mississippi  toward  its  union  with  the  latter  stream. 
These  ravines  alternate  with  narrow  table-topped 
spurs,  which  could  be  easily  fortified  so  as  to  com 
mand  every  point  in  the  ravines  with  cross-fire. 
Hence  it  was  that  the  siege  line  could  not  be  drawn 
too  closely  around  the  beleaguered  city,  but  had  a 
length  of  eight  miles  from  bluff  to  bluff  on  the  north 
and  south. 

It  should  not  be  thought  that  Vicksburg  ended  the 
war  in  the  southwest,  while  the  Federal  army  had 
still  a  daring  and  persistent  foe  in  the  fertile  region 
west  of  the  Mississippi.  The  bayou  country  was  still 
to  embarrass  the  invader  with  conditions  of  war  that 
could  not  be  found  in  the  north.  Early  in  1864,  fol 
lowing  the  capitulation  of  Vicksburg,  an  expedition 
was  planned  for  the  west,  which  resulted  in  entire  fail 
ure.  A  force  was  to  go  up  the  Red  River,  take  Shreve- 
port  near  the  Texas  border,  disperse  the  Confederate 
forces  in  those  places,  and  make  accessible  the  cotton 
and  other  supplies  of  Texas.  There  was  to  be  a  fleet 
on  the  river,  but  land  communications  must  also  be 


218  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

kept  up,  for  the  river  is  subject  to  changes  that  would 
hinder  the  passage  of  boats.  Indeed,  a  map  of  the 
river  belt  shows  a  kind  of  geography  that  is  rarely 
seen  —  many  tributaries  swollen  into  lakes,  making  the 
whole  river  above  Alexandria  look  like  a  ragged  clus 
ter  of  grapes.  A  sluggish  stream  grafted  upon  the 
Mississippi,  setting  back  with  the  silting  of  the  bot 
tom  of  the  trunk  river,  builds  up  its  own  bed  in  turn, 
and  thus  ponds  the  water  in  its  own  branches,  form 
ing  the  lakes  already  mentioned. 

Thus  the  country  was  difficult,  the  expedition  was 
blunderingly  handled,  the  Confederates  moved  rapidly 
and  fought  fiercely,  thousands  of  men  and  many  guns 
were  lost,  and  the  Federals  were  fortunate  in  bringing 
off  a  remnant  of  their  invading  force.  The  national 
campaign  had,  in  the  words  of  Draper,  "but  one  re 
deeming  feature  —  the  engineering  operations  of  Col 
onel  Bailey."  Porter's  fleet  was  caught  at  Alexandria 
by  the  falling  of  the  waters,  making  its  abandonment 
and  destruction  probable.  The  Yankee  engineer,  in 
the  face  of  much  ridicule,  built  a  dam  at  the  falls, 
deepening  the  water  and  allowing  the  vessels  to  pass. 
The  retreat  was  thus  at  last  successful,  but  the  ex 
pedition  was  a  defeat,  and  a  disgrace  as  well,  to  the 
Federal  arms. 

If  there  is  a  point  in  the  South  which  for  the  uses 
of  strategy  compares  with  the  lower  Mississippi,  that 
point  is  the  southern  gateway  of  the  Appalachian 
Valley,  the  country  around  Chattanooga.  This  region 
is  sharply  defined  in  all  its  geographic  features. 
On  the  east  are  the  wild  forest  slopes  of  the  Unakas ; 
on  the  west  is  the  frowning  Cumberland  escarpment 


220  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

and  the  Cumberland  plateau.  Down  this  great  valley 
to  the  southwest  runs  the  Tennessee  River,  already 
majestic  with  the  tribute  gathered  from  the  mountains 
and  valleys  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  But  in 
stead  of  passing  out  at  the  wide-open  southern  door, 
it  suddenly  swings  off  to  the  right,  and  follows  a  deep 
gorge  through  the  plateau  into  Alabama. 

Just  where  the  river  leaves  the  spacious  Appalachian 
Valley  and  enters  the  plateau  is  Chattanooga,  on  the 
east  bank.  Northward  the  railway  runs,  eighty  miles, 
to  Knoxville,  on  the  river  also,  and  then  on  into  Vir 
ginia  to  Richmond  and  Norfolk,  or  down  the  Shen- 
andoah  to  Harpers  Ferry.  Westward,  through  the 
gorge,  is  a  railway  which  branches  in  the  northeastern 
corner  of  Alabama,  and  leads  to  Memphis  and  Nash 
ville.  Southeastward,  another  line  connected  with 
Atlanta  and  Savannah.  Chattanooga,  therefore,  by 
nature,  and  by  man's  use  of  nature,  is  a  key  to  all 
military  movements  in  the  southern  Appalachians, 
especially  as  it  controlled  at  that  time  the  only  direct 
line  of  communication  between  the  southwest  and  the 
Confederate  capital. 

A  little  below  Chattanooga  a  small  stream,  called 
Lookout  Creek,  enters  the  Tennessee  from  the  south 
west.  It  flows  in  a  narrow  valley  which  it  has  cut  in 
the  Cumberland  tableland.  East  of  it  runs  a  long,  flat- 
topped  hill,  about  fifteen  hundred  feet  above  the  valley. 
It  is  like  a  wedge,  narrowing  at  the  north  and  ending  at 
the  bank  of  the  Tennessee  where  the  river  turns  west 
at  this  point,  forming  Moccasin  Bend.  This  hill  is  a 
spur  of  the  plateau,  and  is  the  historic  Lookout  Moun 
tain.  Standing  upon  its  northern  end,  one  may  look 


THE   CIVIL  WAR  221 

northward  upon  Chattanooga  and  the  river,  eastward 
over  the  wide  lowland,  and  westward  across  the  gorge 
of  Lookout  Creek  upon  the  parent  plateau,  from 
which  the  observer's  perch  has  been  separated. 

Between  Chattanooga  and  the  river  is  Cameron 
Hill,  nearly  two  hundred  feet  in  height.  We  may 
stand  on  this,  as  upon  the  stage  of  an  amphitheater, 
and  see  all  the  features  that  controlled  the  lines  of 
battle.  Lookout  Mountain,  with  its  steep  slope, 
crowned  by  a  sandstone  cliff,  is  south,  on  the  right. 
The  river  is  at  the  left  and  in  the  rear.  The  city  is 
directly  in  front,  and  three  miles  to  the  east  runs  a  hill 
extending  from  north  to  south  for  several  miles,  and 
three  hundred  feet  high.  This  is  Missionary  Ridge  ;  it 
is  a  small  example  of  the  innumerable  worn  mountain 
ridges  that  run  up  and  down  the  Appalachian  Valley 
from  Alabama  to  Pennsylvania.  It  is  the  upturned 
edge  of  a  mass  of  the  Knox  dolomite,  the  common 
rock  on  the  floor  of  the  great  valley  in  this  region. 
It  has  not  only  been  turned  partially  on  edge,  but 
has  been  pushed,  in  ancient  days,  from  the  eastward 
somewhat  over  the  rocks  that  form  the  base  of  the 
ridge.  The  geologist  would  say  that  the  structure 
shows  a  fold  and  a  thrust  fault. 

Now  we  have  the  conditions  of  battle,  but  we  must 
go  a  few  miles  south  from  Chattanooga  to  follow  the 
line  of  events.  In  September,  1863,  a  little  more  than 
two  months  after  the  capture  of  Vicksburg,  the  Fed 
eral  army  entered  Chattanooga,  under  Rosecrans. 
The  Confederates  under  Bragg  were  believed  to  be  in 
retreat  southward,  but  were  in  reality  preparing  for 
aggression.  Rosecrans  moved  out  and  was  met  at 


222  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

Chickamauga,  twelve  miles  southeast  of  Chattanooga. 
Here  is  another  longitudinal  stream,  Chickamauga 
Creek,  parallel  to  Lookout  Creek,  the  Lookout  Moun 
tain  Ridge,  and  the  Chattanooga  Creek;  its  Indian 
meaning  is  the  River  of  Death.  The  bloody  battle 
on  the  banks  of  this  stream  was  a  defeat  for  Rose- 
crans,  and  would  have  been  a  rout  but  for  Thomas, 
the  "  rock  of  Chickamauga."  The  rocks  of  Chicka 
mauga  are  not  so  well  known,  those  gently  slanting 
beds  of  limestone  whose  outcropping  edges  furnished 
a  natural  fortification  to  many  riflemen  in  the  two 
days  of  battle. 

Rosecrans  took  refuge  in  Chattanooga,  and  his  foes 
well  thought  that  he  was  in  a  trap.  But  he  was  re 
lieved  from  duty,  and  Thomas  was  in  command, 
until  Grant,  now  free,  could  be  brought,  from  the 
west. 

Our  story  of  the  great  battle  can  be  told  in  a 
moment,  for  our  only  purpose  is  to  see  how  the  move 
ments  of  war  followed  the  forms  of  the  land.  The 
Confederates  held  Lookout  Mountain  and  Missionary 
Ridge.  Grant  observed  the  great  battle  from  Orchard 
Knob.  He  deployed  his  army  in  three  divisions,— 
sending  Hooker  to  dislodge  Bragg's  left  from  Look 
out  Mountain,  Sherman  to  push  back  the  enemy's 
right,  and  Thomas  to  storm  the  Confederate  center  on 
Missionary  Ridge.  That  this  was  perhaps  the  most 
spectacular  battle  of  the  war  was  due  primarily  to  the 
geographic  conditions,  but  also  to  the  unerring  skill 
and  certainty  with  which  the  plan  of  battle  was  carried 
out  by  the  three  great  subordinates  of  the  command 
ing  general. 


224  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

It  would  require  a  separate  chapter  even  to  sketch 
the  geographic  conditions  which  controlled  the  move 
ments  of  the  great  armies  in  Virginia  from  1861  to 
1865.  We  have  more  than  once  in  this  volume  had 
occasion  to  look  upon  this  part  of  the  Atlantic  coastal 
plain,  backed  by  the  mountains  and  crossed  by  tidal 
rivers  flowing  to  the  southeast.  Roads  were  few  and 
in  part  because  the  rivers  were  many.  The  ground 
was  often  flat,  swampy,  and  covered  with  forest,  while 
the  maps  were  too  commonly  poor  and  inadequate. 
The  direct  line  of  attack  or  retreat  between  Richmond 
and  Washington  lay  across  the  rivers  and  these 
tangled  lowlands.  A  dilatory,  not  to  say  timid,  com 
mander  kept  the  Federal  forces  from  striking  a  blow, 
and  allowed  Lee  to  organize  the  Southern  army,  and 
maintain  an  ascendency  that  was  never  shaken  until 
Grant  came  from  Chattanooga  to  Virginia. 

McClellan  had  made  himself  a  slave  of  geographic 
conditions  when  he  had  organized  his  costly  and  use 
less  Peninsular  campaign,  by  which  he  intended  to 
come  up  between  the  York  and  James  rivers  and 
enter  Richmond.  But  commanders  who  win  are  not 
only  organizers  and  strategists  and  students  of  the 
map  —  they  are  fighters,  a  consideration  never  to  be 
overlooked  in  the  study  of  campaigns. 

The  Shenandoah  Valley,  lying  behind  the  Blue 
Ridge,  offers,  in  connection  with  the  Virginia  lowlands, 
perhaps  the  best  illustration  of  our  theme  in  all  the 
South.  The  relations  of  this  "  Valley  of  Virginia " 
were  briefly  given  in  Chapter  III.  We  there  traced 
it  northward  beyond  Harrisburg  and  southward  to 
Chattanooga.  All  its  northern  portion  in  Virginia 


226  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

drains  through  the  Shenandoah  into  the  Potomac  at 
Harpers  Ferry.  West  of  the  immediate  valley  of  the 
Shenandoah  are  other  parallel  valleys  and  ridges 
until  we  come,  farther  west,  to  the  Alleghany  escarp 
ment.  Snugly  protected  by  mountains,  well  watered 
by  many  streams,  rich  in  soils  derived  from  ancient 
beds  of  limestone,  filled  with  fertile  farms  and  com 
fortable  homes,  it  afforded  a  scene  of  rural  beauty  and 
human  prosperity,  until  in  the  four  years  of  war  it 
was  found  to  be  a  great  highway  for  armies.  Running 
transverse  to  the  rivers  of  the  plain,  and  cut  off  from 
them  by  the  Blue  Ridge,  either  army  could  use  it  to 
flank  the  other,  although  it  was  the  Confederates  who 
used  it  most. 

At  the  very  beginning  of  disunion  the  shops  and 
arsenal  at  Harpers  Ferry  were  seized,  and  war  did  not 
desert  the  valley  for  the  next  four  years.  In  1862 
Stonewall  Jackson  was  sent  beyond  the  Blue  Ridge 
to  make  a  diversion  that  might  destroy  the  effective 
ness  of  McClellan's  campaign  in  the  Peninsula,  espe 
cially  by  threatening  Washington.  Jackson  enacted 
along  the  Shenandoah  one  of  the  most  brilliant  chap 
ters  in  the  history  of  the  Confederate  arms. 

It  was  expected  by  McClellan  that  he  would  take 
to  the  Peninsula  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men, 
but  in  this  he  was  disappointed.  Jackson  being  in  the 
valley,  the  President  held  back  thirty-five  thousand  men 
under  McDowell  to  defend  Washington.  Banks  was 
sent  from  Manassas  to  Winchester,  and  McDowell  was 
ordered  to  Manassas.  Jackson  thus  had  McDowell  on 
his  right,  Banks  in  front  of  him  in  the  valley,  and  Fre 
mont  in  the  mountains  on  his  left.  His  object  was  to 


Pti 


228  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

crush  them  one  by  one  before  they  could  unite.  He 
drove  Banks  on  a  breathless  retreat  down  the  valley, 
until  the  Federal  soldiers  had  crossed  the  Potomac  to 
avoid  destruction.  He  then  sought  and  scattered  the 
force  under  Fremont,  and  was  ready  to  give  fierce 
battle  to  Shields  who  had  come  across  the  Blue  Ridge 
from  McDowell.  Having  already  diverted  McDowell's 
great  corps  from  McClellan,  he  now  himself  hurried 
to  join  Lee.  "Thus  in  thirty-five  days  Jackson's 
army  had  marched  two  hundred  and  forty-five  miles, 
had  fought  three  important  battles,  besides  two 
minor  ones,  winning  them  all,  and  had  practically 
destroyed  three  Union  armies."  1  The  next  important 
movement  in  the  valley  led  up  to  the  greatest  and 
most  critical  battle  of  the  entire  war.  It  was  in  1863 
when  Lee  determined  to  execute  the  vast  flank  move 
ment  that  should  carry  him  down  the  Shenandoah, 
across  the  Potomac,  through  Maryland,  into  Pennsyl 
vania.  Nature  had  planned  a  spacious  highway  and 
walled  it  in.  Through  this  avenue  Lee  would  go, 
and  transfer  the  seat  of  war  from  southern  to  north 
ern  soil.  Once  across  the  Pennsylvania  line  Lee 
turned  to  the  right,  entered  the  passes  of  the  South 
Mountain,  thus  leaving  the  valley  to  the  west,  and 
met  the  Union  army  at  Gettysburg.  After  the  battle 
Lee  withdrew  across  the  Potomac,  as  he  had  come. 
Failing  to  reap  all  its  advantages,  the  North  had 
won  a  great  victory,  and  at  a  most  dramatic  moment, 
—  on  the  day  when  the  future  commander  of  the  Poto 
mac  was  receiving  the  capitulation  of  Vicksburg. 
In  1864  Grant  was  before  Petersburg  and  Lee 

1  "  History  of  the  United  States,"  Adams  and  Trent,  p.  391. 


THE   CIVIL   WAR  229 

sent  Early  to  make  in  the  valley  the  same  kind  of 
diversion  that  Jackson  had  made.  Early  was  a 
fighter,  but  he  was  not  Jackson ;  and  it  was  not 
McClellan  now,  but  Grant,  who  stayed  stubbornly 
where  he  was  and  sent  Sheridan  to  take  care  of  the 
Shenandoah.  Early  had  even  appeared  before 
Washington,  but  was  soon  driven  out  of  the  valley 
by  his  foe,  and  the  brilliant  Irish  soldier  under 
Grant's  orders  proceeded  to  burn  everything  that 
could  subsist  an  army.  The  Shenandoah  Valley  was 
a  smoking  ruin,  and  it  was  thereafter  to  know  the 
pursuits  of  peace. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

WHERE    LITTLE   RAIN    FALLS 

NEW  ENGLAND,  or  the  Great  Lakes,  or  the  South, 
offers  us  a  single  continuous  region,  but  when  we 
study  the  pattern  of  the  West,  it  is  a  patchwork, 
made  up  of  mountains  and  plateaus,  and  the  latter 
are  often  so  smooth  and  so  girt  about  with  moun 
tains  that  we  call  them  plains.  And  these  plains  are 
so  dry  that  they  have  long  been  put  in  a  bundle  and 
called  the  arid  lands.  Their  dry  climate  is  the  fea 
ture  which  more  than  all  others  affects  the  lives  and 
doings  of  men,  and  therefore  we  place  under  a  com 
mon  title  lands  as  remote  from  each  other  as  the 
plains  of  western  Kansas  and  the  great  valley  of  Cali 
fornia. 

The  westerly  winds  strike  the  edge  of  the  conti 
nent,  heavily  freighted  with  vapor  from  the  warm 
Pacific  Ocean.  When  these  seas  of  moist  air  roll  up 
the  cooling  slopes  of  the  Pacific  mountains,  condensa 
tion  is  rapid,  and  abundant  rains  and  snows  support 
the  forests  and  feed  the  glaciers  of  these  lofty  lands. 
East  of  the  mountain  belt,  which  includes  western 
Washington,  Oregon,  and  much  of  California,  the 
arid  lands  begin,  and  they  include  nearly  all  the  ter 
ritory  eastward  to  about  the  hundredth  meridian. 
This  line  runs  through  the  Dakotas,  central  Ne- 

230 


WHERE   LITTLE   RAIN   FALLS  231 

braska,  and  western  Kansas.  It  is  not  the  exact  cli 
matic  boundary,  but  is  nearest  it,  and  it  is  easy  to 
remember  that  eastward  more  than  twenty  inches  of 
rain  fall  in  a  year,  crops  are  raised  without  artificial 
watering,  and  we  call  the  lands  prairies.  West  of 
the  line  there  is  no  sudden  change  either  of  climate 
or  topography,  but  on  the  average  the  rainfall  is  less 
than  twenty  inches,  and  irrigation  is  needed,  except 
in  unusual  seasons,  or  for  crops  that  require  but  little 
water. 

From  western  Kansas  to  the  Sierras  is  a  solid  arid 
country,  save  patches  of  mountain  land  which  are 
cold  enough  to  condense  and  comb  out  of  the  atmos 
phere  the  water  that  yet  remains  after  it  has  swept 
over  the  Pacific  ranges.  This  area  of  dry  land  in 
the  United  States  is  enormous,  and  in  much  of  Utah 
and  Nevada  the  rainfall  is  less  than  ten  inches,  and 
in  parts  of  Nevada  and  southwestern  Arizona  it  is 
less  than  five.  That  an  empire  of  a  dozen  states  and 
territories  should  sometime  lie  in  this  arid  country 
would  not  have  been  dreamed  by  the  early  explorers, 
who  thought  themselves  lucky  if  they  eluded  the  sav 
age,  and  got  water  enough  for  man  and  beast.  They 
wrote  the  region  down  upon  the  maps,  at  least  so 
much  of  it  as  lay  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  as 
the  Great  American  Desert,  and  made  it  seem  to  the 
childish  geographer  behind  his  atlas  at  school  as  in 
hospitable  as  the  Desert  of  Gobi  or  the  Sahara.  In 
deed,  in  such  mistaught  minds,  a  desert  was  a  place 
where  nothing  could  live  or  grow,  for  the  world  had 
not  begun  to  learn  its  wealth  of  life,  or  to  discover 
those  changes  of  heredity  and  environment  by  which 


232  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

lowly  populations  are  fitted  to  the  dryest  and  wettest, 
the  hottest  and  coldest,  the  steadiest  and  the  most 
shifting  conditions. 

There  was  no  dearth  of  life  on  the  Great  Plains 
before  the  prairie  schooner  crossed  them,  or  the  swift 
train  sped  without  hindrance  from  Omaha  to  Denver  ; 
the  savage  knew  the  highways  of  the  plains,  the  buf 
falo  and  prairie  dog  made  them  populous,  and  the 
desert  grasses  thrived  and  kept  the  sands  from 
nakedness.  The  green  slopes  of  New  England 
would  be  missed  and  might  be  sighed  for,  but  the 
skies  were  always  bright,  the  gray  landscape  had  its 
own  spell,  and  it  was  the  land  of  the  imagination, 
with  vastness  like  the  sea. 

When  we  cross  the  hundredth  meridian,  going  west, 
we  begin  to  be  three  thousand  feet  or  more  above  the 
sea,  and  when  we  have  reached  the  eastern  base  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  in  Wyoming  or  Colorado,  our 
altitude  is  five  or  six  thousand  feet.  We  have  crossed 
a  plateau  which  has  a  gentle  slant  to  the  east.  The 
rivers  flow  out  of  the  mountains  and  down  this  upland 
floor  toward  the  Mississippi.  Such  are  the  Missouri, 
the  Platte,  and  the  Arkansas.  In  many  places  in 
Kansas  the  Arkansas  River  and  its  branches  flow 
almost  on  the  surface  of  the  country,  or  have  cut 
shallow  valleys,  barely  one  or  two  hundred  feet  below 
the  plains.  There  is  good  reason  for  this  in  the  long, 
gentle  slope  over  which  the  rivers  must  run,  and  in 
the  soft  and  destructible  strata  in  which  they  often 
work.  The  streams  cannot  have  much  velocity, 
hence  their  working  power  is  small.  And  the  land 
waste  is  so  abundant  that  it  clogs  the  streams,  and 


234  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

they  become,  as  the  geographer  says,  "  overloaded," 
and  tend  to  struggle  over  a  waste  floor  of  their 
own  making,  frequently  dividing  into  strands  which 
reunite,  making  a  "  braided  "  river,  such  as  the  Platte 
often  is.  This  tells  why  the  French  discoverers  saw 
a  torrent  of  muddy  water  when  they  passed  the  mouth 
of  the  Missouri  —  waters  described  by  a  modern  wit 
ness  as  "  too  thick  for  a  beverage,  too  thin  for  food." 

Yet  we  must  not  let  ourselves  think  that  the  coun 
try  is  as  smooth  as  it  might  appear  to  a  tourist  on 
the  Union  Pacific  or  Burlington  Railway.  The  rocks 
are  not  all  soft,  but  they  are  nearly  always  horizon 
tal,  and  the  weathering  of  the  softer  strata  leaves 
the  edges  of  the  harder  often  outstanding  in  escarp 
ments,  or  walls,  that  relieve  the  monotony.  And  in 
many  parts  of  western  Nebraska,  and  elsewhere, 
the  fitful  streams  of  this  country  and  the  perpetual 
weathering  have  cut  the  strata  into  a  maze  of  scarps 
and  slopes,  which  remain  utterly  naked  and  barren, 
through  failure  of  herb  and  tree,  and  make  what  the 
early  French  voyageurs  called  mauvaises  terres,  bad 
lands  —  bad  to  them  because  they  were  hard  to  travel 
over,  as  bad  they  must  always  remain,  save  for  weird 
scenery  and  their  great  harvests  of  fossil  remains, 
which  have  kept  many  scholars  to  their  tasks  and 
filled  many  museums. 

In  some  parts,  too,  the  winds  have  shifted  the 
waste  and  done  what  they  could  to  give  variety  to 
the  land  surface.  This  has  especially  happened 
along  the  rivers,  which  have  made  the  earth  and 
sand  available  for  wind  action.  The  contoured 
maps  of  the  plains  will  often  show,  by  the  crowd- 


WHERE   LITTLE    RAIN   FALLS  235 

ing  of  small  circles  and  ellipses,  great  patches  of 
such  dunes  on  the  leeward  side  of  the  Platte,  the 
Arkansas,  and  lesser  streams. 

The  land  is  not,  then,  absolutely  smooth,  for  rivers 
and  winds  and  weathering  have  diversified  it  much, 
but  reliefs  of  a  few  hundred  feet  count  for  little 
when  the  eye  sweeps  vast  areas,  reaching  from 
Dakota  to  Texas. 

There  is  a  central  belt  of  the  Great  Plains  which 
is  smoother  than  the  rest.  It  runs  through  Nebraska 
and  Kansas  and  into  Texas,  and  has  been  distin 
guished  as  the  High  Plains.  We  can  better  under 
stand  them  if  we  go  back  to  the  origin  of  the  Great 
Plains  as  a  whole.  Under  these  lies  a  vast  floor  of 
older  beds  of  marine  origin.  After  this  sea  floor  was 
uplifted  it  was  overswept  for  long  by  river  torrents 
from  the  young  and  high  mountains  on  the  west. 
These  torrents  wandered  this  way  and  that,  and  laid 
down  the  materials  that  now  form  the  surface  parts 
of  the  plains.  Thus  there  is  a  veneer  of  younger 
waste,  often  five  hundred  feet  thick, .  carpeting  a 
floor  of  harder  and  more  ancient  rocks. 

In  this  central  area  there  is  rain  enough  to  allow 
the  forming  of  a  sod,  which  is  firm  enough  to  check 
erosion  by  rain  and  by  small  streams.  Hence,  the 
old  debris  plain  is  almost  perfect  in  its  preservation. 
West  of  it,  however,  as  in  eastern  Colorado,  there  is 
less  rain,  no  real  turf  can  form,  and  yet  the  streams 
from  the  mountains  are  more  forceful  than  farther 
east,  because  nearer  the  rain  belt  of  the  Rockies. 
Hence,  though  it  seems  a  contradiction,  the  semi- 
arid,  middle  belt  is  smoother,  and  has  suffered  less 


236  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

erosion  than  the  arid  belt  west  of  it  or  the  well- 
watered  prairies  east  of  it.  The  character  of  this 
singular  land,  with  its  horizon  like  that  of  the  ocean, 
can  be  read  in  a  recent  report  of  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey.1 

As  distinguished  from  the  still  drier  plains  on  the 
west,  the  High  Plains  became  known  as  the  "rain 
belt,"  and  there  followed  on  this  several  years  of 
the  most  disastrous  experiment  in  agriculture  ever 
tried  in  the  United  States.  Every  one  knew  of  the 
fertility  of  the  prairies,  and  the  prairies  lapped  well 
over  into  central  Kansas  and  Nebraska.  So  the 
inrushing  settlers,  from  1885  to  1895,  failed  to  mark 
that  vague  but  stern  boundary  which  separated  the 
regions  of  ample  and  deficient  rainfall. 

As  if  fate  were  in  league  with  their  ignorance, 
there  were  in  this  period  several  seasons  of  increased 
rainfall ;  and  it  was  bravely  asserted  that  the  climate 
was  changing,  and  some  thought  the  plow  was 
doing  it,  and  that  any  region  once  plowed  and  set 
with  patches  of  trees  would  woo  the  rains. 

In  earlier  days,  when  the  westward  extension  of 
slavery  was  pending,  Kansas  had  seen  storms  that 
rivaled  her  tornadoes.  But  she  never  perhaps  saw 
so  much  suffering  or  enacted  so  large  a  social  and 
geographical  experiment  as  when  excited  emigrants 
from  the  East,  or  men  who  found  no  place  in  Illinois 
or  Iowa,  rushed  across  the  one  hundredth  meridian 
and  began  to  take  up  quarter  sections,  lay  out  cities 
by  the  square  mile,  build  county  seats  and  court- 

1  "The  High  Plains  and  their  Utilization,"  by  Willard  D.  Johnson, 
Part  IV,  Twenty- first  Annual  Report  U.  S.  Geological  Survey. 


WHERE   LITTLE   RAIN   FALLS  237 

houses  and  palatial  schoolhouses,  and  boom  the 
country.  One  might  expect  such  conditions  at  Vir 
ginia  City  a  generation  ago,  or  at  Cripple  Creek  in 
later  years,  but  hardly  on  the  dull,  endless  acres  of 
western  Kansas. 

The  men  who  worked  the  boom  did  not  bring  their 
money  in  their  pockets  or  draw  their  checks  on  east 
ern  bank  accounts.  The  checks  were  drawn  in  the 
East,  but  by  men  and  women  who,  with  equal  haste, 
accepted  mortgages  upon  lands  they  never  saw,  lands 
which,  with  square  miles  enough,  would  raise  cattle, 
but  would  not  raise  wheat.  When  the  bubble  col 
lapsed,  many  men  had  learned  many  things.  One 
dry  season  after  another  taught  them  that  the  climate 
had  not  changed.  The  boom  towns  did  not  fill  up  ; 
the  farmers  had  no  money  with  which  to  pay  interest, 
to  say  nothing  of  principal.  Banks  and  loan  com 
panies  failed,  the  eastern  lender  and  western  bor 
rower  had  hard  feelings  toward  each  other,  and  the 
one  became  wisely  conservative  about  western  invest 
ments,  and  the  other  learned  economy  in  a  hard  school, 
either  by  sticking  to  the  ground,  or  after  his  prairie 
schooner  had  carried  him  back  to  Illinois  or  over  into 
Oklahoma. 

A  people  pressed  for  ready  money  is  a  people  ready 
to  hold  and  preach  extraordinary  doctrines,  and  thus 
we  are  able  to  see  how  the  populistic  wave  of  antago 
nism  to  eastern  financial  ideas  swept  the  plains,  and 
how  a  large  political  and  social  movement  grew  out 
of  the  failure  of  a  frontier  population  to  adjust  itself 
properly  to  geographic  conditions. 

We  can  see  how  this  adjustment  has  now  come,  and 


238  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

that  these  commonwealths  may  now  look  safely  for 
ward  to  an  era  of  unbroken  progress.  Kansas  in 
creased  her  population  between  1870  and  1888  by 
much  more  than  a  million.  Her  numbers  were  quad 
rupled  in  that  period.  She  now  knows  that  there  is  a 
limit  to  the  people  she  can  support,  especially  in  her 
western  counties.  She  has  found  that  only  here  and 
there  can  these  lands  be  watered.  They  are  too  far 
from  the  sources  of  supply  in  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
Too  much  water  has  been  evaporated,  or  has  soaked 
away,  or  has  been  drawn  into  Colorado  ditches,  or  it 
flows,  as  in  Arkansas,  too  low  to  be  run  out  on  the 
uplands.  The  artesian  supply  will  be  small  and  con 
fined  to  special  places.  Smaller  population,  more 
grazing,  and  forage  crops  that  will  thrive  in  a  dry 
climate  —  such  are  the  secrets  of  adjustment  which 
have  now  been  learned.  The  Kaffir  corn  product 
alone  is  now  worth  millions  of  dollars  every  year,  and 
here,  as  in  Nebraska  on  the  north,  the  cow  is  known 
as  a  "  mortgage  lifter." 

The  Llano  Estacado  of  Texas  is  the  southern  con 
tinuation  of  the  High  Plains  of  Kansas ;  but  its  true 
nature  as  a  plateau  is  more  visible  because,  on  the 
east  and  south,  it  fronts  the  seaboard  lowlands  by  a 
steep  wall  formed  as  the  streams  have  gnawed  back 
into  the  upland,  and  on  the  west  the  Pecos  Valley 
separates  it  from  the  mountains.  The  region  is  hot 
and  almost  too  dry  even  for  pasturage.  And  yet  as 
much  rain  falls  here  as  upon  the  wheat  lands  of 
Dakota,  but  the  difference  is  in  the  spasmodic  charac 
ter  of  the  rains,  the  greater  evaporation,  and  low  rela 
tive  humidity.  The  amount  of  rainfall  does  not 


WHERE  LITTLE   RAIN   FALLS  239 

assure  paying  tillage  of  the  soil,  for  many  things 
must  be  counted  in.  A  region  may  seem  to  have 
water  enough,  but  it  may  fall  at  the  wrong  season  of 
the  year,  when  it  can  do  crops  no  good.  Thus  storage 
is  added  to  the  great  bundle  of  irrigation  problems. 

Irrigation,  indeed,  is  of  universal  interest  west  of 
the  one  hundredth  meridian,  and  has  become  in  many 


FIG.  50.     Desert  Vegetation.     P^oothills  of  the  House  Range,  Western 

Utah. 

ways  of  national  importance.  And  yet  few  saw  this 
until  within  the  last  two  or  three  years.  National 
recognition  came  with  the  opening  of  a  new  century, 
and  long  before  its  close  fifty  millions  of  people  may 
be  dependent  on  this  phase  of  agriculture,  and  the 
society  of  the  West  will  be  profoundly  molded  by  it. 
Seven  and  one-half  millions  of  acres  are  now  made 
productive  by  artificial  watering  within  the  United 


240  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

States,  and  the  work  is  only  in  its  beginnings.  Before 
1900  a  proposition  to  give  federal  direction  to  irriga 
tion  was  met  by  a  united  protest  from  the  press  of  the 
East  that  this  was  a  scheme  to  take  money  from  the 
eastern  farmer  to  give  it  to  his  brother  in  the  West. 
It  is  now  seen  that  more  than  one-third  of  the  United 
States  must  depend  on  irrigation.  It  is  not  merely 
the  value  that  lies  in  the  soils  that  is  in  question,  but 
the  profitable  development  of  every  natural  resource 
of  the  West,  for  food  cannot  permanently  be  brought 
across  half  a  continent  to  provide  for  a  vast  and  stable 
society. 

We  know  now,  also,  that  only  a  fraction  (about  one- 
tenth)  of  all  the  dry  land  can  be  irrigated,  because 
there  is  water  enough  for  this  and  no  more.  It  be 
comes,  therefore,  a  question  of  wisdom  in  the  use  of 
water,  of  the  right  choice  of  lands,  of  the  proper 
crops,  of  skillful  handling,  and  of  a  conserving  use  for 
grazing  of  lands  that  cannot  be  brought  "  under  the 
ditch."  Irrigation  means,  also,  intensive  agriculture, 
for  economy  requires  the  use  of  the  shortest  canals, 
the  fewest  weirs,  the  least  machinery,  and  the  largest 
cropping  of  small  fields.  And  this  means  small  hold 
ings,  a  compact  rural  society  approaching  the  con 
ditions  of  the  town,  with  convenient  churches  and 
schools,  the  best  roads,  telephones,  free  delivery  of 
mails,  and  constant  social  life,  divesting  the  farm  of 
its  ancient  narrowness  and  loneliness.  Such  is  the 
attractive  picture  presented  in  a  recent  writing,1  - 
whether  too  sanguine  or  not  we  will  not  affirm,  — but 
suggesting  that  at  length  the  germs  of  discontent  and 

1  Guy  E.  Mitchell,  in  Forestry  and  Irrigation,  January,  1903. 


WHERE   LITTLE   RAIN   FALLS  241 

anarchy  in  the  cities  may  be  made  harmless  by  bringing 
out  of  the  slums  the  men  and  the  women  that  would 
with  opportunity  respond  to  the  call  of  a  better  life. 

Irrigation  is  national  in  other  ways,  for  millions 
of  people,  frugal  and  wealth-producing,  would  thus 
be  added  to  our  population,  ready  to  spend  vast 
sums  for  articles  manufactured  in  the  East ;  while 
the  growth  of  cities  in  the  East,  and  the  diffusion  of 
money  there,  would  enrich  the  farmer  of  the  older 
states  as  well.  Within  a  few  years,  also,  bulletin  after 
bulletin  has  appeared  from  the  presses  of  the  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture,  dealing  with  irri 
gation  experiments  and  results  in  humid  regions. 
Every  farmer  knows  that  he  loses  half  or  far  more 
than  half  of  some  crops  because  of  the  failure  of 
rains  at  the  critical  time.  More  and  more  out  of  the 
principles  established  in  western  experience  will  the 
eastern  farmer  profit.  Especially  will  this  be  true  of 
crops  which,  like  fruit,  are  especially  dependent  on 
water,  and  are  grown  on  compact  areas.  Gradually 
the  skinning  processes,  so  well  known  in  American 
agriculture,  will  disappear,  and  their  place  will  be 
taken  by  intensive  tillage,  small  farms,  special  crops 
adapted  to  locality,  closely  settled  lands  which  are 
indeed  communities;  and  the  unhappy  line  which 
makes  the  city  a  slum  and  the  country  a  wilderness 
may  be  at  least  relieved,  though  it  be  a  large  hope 
that  it  should  disappear. 

Those  who  frown  on  federal  supervision  have  not 
considered  the  inherent  difficulties  of  irrigation  policy 
and  law.  The  early  settler  takes  up  a  claim,  cuts  a 
ditch,  and  uses  the  water.  He  has  a  prior  right,  but 


242  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

others  come  and  water  rights  become  involved.  Long 
and  big  ditches  and  storage  reservoirs  are  needed, 
and  the  corporation  replaces  the  individual  and  the 
difficulties  thicken.  Finally  a  great  river  like  the 
Missouri  or  Arkansas  crosses  the  boundaries  of 
states,  and  even  state  governments  become  helpless 
to  protect  their  citizens.  It  would  not  be  fair  for 
Colorado  to  stop  all  the  water  of  the  Arkansas,  leav 
ing  but  a  dry  river  bed  in  Kansas.  Only  federal 
authority  can  adjudicate  such  claims  as  this,  or  pro 
vide  for  the  fair  and  continuous  economic  progress 
of  this  great  western  domain.  In  March,  1902,  the 
United  States  Senate  performed  its  part  in  enacting 
the  new  irrigation  law,  without  a  dissenting  vote  and 
without  so  much  as  a  roll-call,  and  it  seems  at  last  to 
be  recognized  that  the  arid  lands  and  the  forests  of 
America  are  as  proper  subjects  of  legislative  atten 
tion  as  our  manufacturing  or  our  shipping. 

In  President  Roosevelt's  first  message  to  Congress 
he  said,  "The  forest  and  water  problems  are  per 
haps  the  most  vital  internal  questions  of  the  United 
States."  He  rightly  puts  these  questions  on  their 
highest  ground.  They  do  not  belong  to  the  mere 
technique  of  agriculture ;  they  pertain  to  the  making 
of  homes,  to  the  right  use  of  our  greatest  resources ; 
they  are  social  and  economic  problems  that  effect  our 
whole  national  life. 

In  a  recent  report  President  Wheeler  of  the  Uni 
versity  of  California  included  a  department  of  irriga 
tion  among  the  immediate  needs  of  the  school,  and 
such  a  department  was  almost  at  once  established. 
More  or  less  instruction  in  this  field  is  given  in  all 


WHERE    LITTLE   RAIN    FALLS  243 

the  agricultural  colleges  and  higher  schools  of  the 
arid  region.  Somewhat  over  seven  million  acres,  as 
we  have  seen,  are  now  watered  in  the  arid  states  and 
territories,  which  are  eleven  in  number.  California 
and  Colorado  are  at  the  top  of  the  list  with  more  than 
one  million  acres  each.  But  in  the  western  United 
States  there  is  believed  to  be  water  enough  to  irrigate 
sixty  million  acres.  This  means  that  but  one-eighth 
of  the  work  has  yet  been  done,  and  a  map  showing 
the  watered  areas  of  the  West  is  barely  specked  with 
the  black  patches  used  to  represent  them.  Professor 
Elwood  Mead  compares  the  Missouri  with  the  Nile. 
The  African  river  supports  five  million  people  with 
its  fertilizing  waters,  while  our  own  great  river  and 
its  branches  can  be  made  to  water  three  times  as 
much  land  as  is  now  cultivated  along  the  Nile.  There 
are  now  fifty  thousand  miles  of  irrigating  ditches  in 
this  country.  The  cost  of  them  has  been  enormous, 
and  yet  upon  authority  we  are  told  that  "  the  total 
cost  of  all  the  irrigation  works  in  use  in  the  country 
is  only  three-fourths  of  the  value  of  the  crops  pro 
duced  each  year  on  irrigated  lands." 

In  Colorado  the  latest  figures  give  more  than 
1,600,000  acres  under  the  ditch.  The  state  has 
thus  outstripped  California  in  its  extent  of  watered 
land,  though  not  in  the  value  of  the  products,  for 
some  valuable  fruits  of  the  Pacific  state  will  not 
grow  in  the  colder  climate  of  the  Rocky  Moun 
tains.  The  agriculture  of  Colorado  has  often  pro 
duced  more  annual  value  than  its  mining ;  but  both 
go  together,  for  the  miner  gets  subsistence  and  the 
farmer  gains  a  market,  so  that,  with  cities,  farms, 


244  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

railways,  and  mines,  Colorado  has  fast  risen  to  the 
complete  possessions  of  a  civilized  and  advanced 
community,  and  few  richer  or  finer  regions  can  be 
found  than  that  which  stretches  along  the  eastern 
foot  of  the  Front  Range  past  Boulder  and  Greeley. 
If  the  one  is  known  for  its  university,  the  other  has 


FIG.  51.     Dust  Whirl  in  the  Desert,  Western  Utah. 

its  potatoes  and  alfalfa,  and  is  not  without  its  normal 
school,  and  both  together  typify  the  vigorous,  untir 
ing  life  which  has  grown  out  of  a  desert  by  right  use 
of  soil,  sunlight,  and  mountain  streams.  The  value 
of  crops  grown  by  irrigation  in  1899  in  Colorado 
was  more  than  $15,000,000.  The  settlers  at  Greeley 
in  1870  were  second  only  to  the  Mormons  of  Utah 
in  the  early  beginnings  in  the  reclamation  of  dry 
soils ;  but  now  the  watered  lands  of  the  state  border 


WHERE    LITTLE   RAIN    P^ALLS 


245 


the  Rocky  Mountain  front,  stretch  down  the  South 
Platte  River  into  Nebraska,  and  form  great  patches 
on  the  Rio  Grande,  and  also  on  the  Gunnison,  and 
the  Grand,  beyond  the  Continental  Divide. 

West  of  the  Wasatch  Mountains  and  east  of  the 
Sierras  is  a  land  which  we  know  as  the  Great  Basin. 
We  call  it  so  because  it  has  no  drainage  to  the  sea. 
The  mountain  slopes  that  border  it  are  well 


FIG.  52.     Great  Salt  Lake. 

watered,  and  some  rain  falls  everywhere  upon  its 
surface ;  but  not  enough  to  fill  up  its  central  lowlands 
and  pour  across  the  bounding  divides  upon  the  slopes 
that  lead  to  the  Pacific.  The  western  half  of  Utah 
and  the  whole  state  of  Nevada  occupy  the  greater 
part  of  this  basin.  Many  swift  streams  rush  through 
the  gorges  of  the  Wasatch  ;  but  their  goal  is  not  the 
sea,  for  the  remnant  of  water  that  is  not  dissipated  in 
soil  and  air  mingles  with  the  shallow  brines  of  Great 
Salt  Lake.  With  more  than  temperate  heat,  and  with 
little  rainfall,  the  air  is  like  a  dry  sponge,  and  absorbs 


246  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

so  much  of  the  scanty  moisture  that  the  lakes  cannot 
fill  up  and  run  to  the  sea.  Hence  the  minerals  dis 
solved  from  the  surrounding  lands  and  brought  into 
Great  Salt  Lake  cannot  escape,  and  they  completely 
saturate  its  waters. 

Within  the  basin  itself  are  many  mountains,  though 
they  do  not  rival  in  breadth  or  height  the  bordering 
ranges.  They  run  parallel  to  each  other  and  from 
north  to  south,  and  are  separated  from  each  other  by 
smooth  areas  that  make  up  the  general  floor  of  the 
basin.  This  floor  is  especially  flat  and  wide  around 
Great  Salt  Lake,  and  southward. 

If  we  look  out  over  the  fields  and  gardens  that 
blossom  at  the  base  of  the  Wasatch,  and  would  know 
the  meaning  of  the  soils,  we  must  lift  our  eyes  to  the 
lower  slopes  of  the  mountains.  It  will  take  no  skill 
to  see  horizontal  platforms  cut  as  strong  lines  on  the 
mountain  sides,  and  some  of  them  are  formed  as  high 
as  one  thousand  feet  above  the  lake  and  the  railways. 
They  are  not  such  forms  as  streams  and  rain  wash 
make  on  a  mountain.  Instead  of  ravines  and  but 
tressed  ridges,  we  find  what  might  be  railway  grades. 

They  could  only  be  made  by  the  waves  of  a  body 
of  water,  and  they  mark  the  days  when  the  Great 
Salt  Lake  was  1050  feet  deep  (it  is  now  less  than  fifty) ; 
when  it  was  not  salt  at  all,  but  found  a  northward  out 
let  into  the  Snake  River,  the  Columbia,  and  the  sea, 
and  when  the  climate  was  therefore  far  more  cool  and 
moist  than  it  is  to-day.  The  reader  has  already  been 
asked  to  imagine  the  wide  flats  that  would  greet  his 
eye  if  Lake  Erie  or  Lake  Michigan  could  be  drained. 
Here  is  a  similar  case :  the  ancient  lake  in  Utah  was 


WHERE    LITTLE   RAIN    FALLS  247 

as  large  as  Lake  Huron  and  deeper ;  into  its  waters 
floated  the  waste  of  the  uplands,  and  sinking  it  formed 
the  mud  plains  which  have  been  uncovered  by  the 
drying  away  of  the  lake.  If  we  ask  when  all  this 
happened,  we  can  only  answer  that  this  era  of  cool  and 
wet  climate  seems  to  have  been  contemporaneous  with 
the  glaciers  and  great  glacial  lakes  of  the  East. 

We  need  not  look  for  any  finer  instance  of  geo 
graphic  control  of  the  forms  of  land  and  water  and  of 
the  ultimate  doings  of  men.  The  earth's  crust  had  to 
be  wrinkled  and  broken  to  raise  the  mountains  that 
bound  the  basin  and  run  along  its  floor.  Their  wast 
ing  was  made  swift  by  the  abundant  waters  that  not 
only  formed  an  inland  sea,  but  brought  the  ruins  of 
the  land  to  rest  in  it ;  and  a  change  of  climate,  as  yet 
unexplained,  dried  away  the  waters,  until  but  a  salty 
patch  is  left,  leaving  the  wide  plains  dry  and  barren, 
and  compelling  man  to  guide  out  of  their  natural  chan 
nels  and  use  with  economy  the  streams  that  remain. 
This  the  Mormon  colonist  began,  more  than  fifty  years 
ago,  to  do.  It  was  the  only  way  in  which  a  commu 
nity  could  then  live  in  so  distant  a  wilderness,  and  it 
continues  to  be  the  only  way  in  which  a  commonwealth 
can  prosper  even  in  the  days  of  great  railways  and 
swift  communication. 

As  on  the  Great  Plains  so  in  the  Great  Basin  it  is 
an  economic  fact  of  greatest  meaning  that  the  water 
supply  avails  for  but  a  fraction  of  the  land.  We  shall 
never  see  a  thousand  miles  of  wheat  and  corn,  as  one 
might  see  on  the  Mississippi  prairies.  But  here  is 
little  land  of  absolute  dearth  ;  grasses  grow,  and  their 
nutritious  qualities  outlast  the  process  of  drying,  and 


248  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

keep  alive  the  roving  herds  even  when  snows  cover 
the  mountains  of  the  horizon.  Millions  of  sheep  be 
long  to  the  wealth  of  Utah,  and  cattle  not  a  few. 

The  Colorado  colony  at  Greeley  and  the  settlers  of 
Utah  were  the  pioneers  in  irrigation,  and  have  dem 
onstrated  that  states  can  be  built  and  can  thrive  upon 
this  mode  of  tilling  the  soil.  Hereafter  it  is  only  a 
question  of  using  the  experience  of  the  past,  with  the 
necessary  capital,  to  achieve  like  gains  in  New  Mex 
ico,  Arizona,  and  other  parts  of  the  West. 

Centuries  ago  aboriginal  peoples  made  ditches  and 
watered  their  crops  in  what  is  now  Arizona,  and  the 
later  Indian  inhabitants  were  doing  the  same  when 
the  white  man  came.  Nature  has  one  unvarying  com 
mand  when  man  insists  on  dwelling  in  that  dry  and 
heated  country.  He  must  use  the  water  with  economy, 
and  use  as  much  of  it  as  he  can. 

Northern  Arizona  will  never  be  made  into  farms, 
for  it  belongs  to  that  high  plateau,  cool  and  rocky, 
through  which  the  Colorado  has  worn  its  great  canyon. 
It  has  a  fair  rainfall,  however,  and  will  have  its  quota 
of  prosperity  through  its  pasturage.  The  southern 
and  western  districts  are  much  lower,  and  they  are 
hotter  and  drier  as  well ;  for  at  Phoenix,  and  westward, 
the  rainfall  is  not  above  five  inches  in  a  year,  and 
the  average  temperature  is  that  of  New  Orleans. 

The  Gila  River  rises  on  the  eastern  border  of  the 
territory,  and  crosses  it  to  the  west  and  south,  entering 
the  Colorado  at  Yuma,  and  it  is  in  the  low  and  tropical 
basin  of  this  river  that  man  is  finding  a  home.  The 
irrigated  lands  of  the  Gila  River  are  already  worth 
millions  of  dollars,  and  without  such  use  of  water 


WHERE    LITTLE    RAIN   FALLS  249 

there  could  never  be  anything  here  but  tropical  deserts 
and  desolate  uplands,  crossed  by  the  railways  and  vis 
ited  by  the  tourist  and  explorer.  Here  it  is  proposed 
to  make  one  of  the  beginnings  in  federal  aid  and  super 
vision  by  building  on  the  Gila  River  what  is  known 
as  the  San  Carlos  dam.  By  erecting  a  dam  some 
what  more  than  two  hundred  feet  from  the  bed  rock, 
enough  water  can  be  held  in  reserve  to  water  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  acres  of  land.  If  this  can 
be  done,  the  million  dollars  which  the  reservoir  will 
cost  will  be  a  trivial  outlay  for  so  large  a  return,  and 
would  be  far  more  than  earned  in  any  single  year 
after  the  land  is  fairly  under  cultivation. 

Similar  to  the  Arizona  lowlands  is  the  Colorado 
desert  of  southeastern  California,  and  this  whole  Col 
orado  region  may  gather  an  importance  all  its  own 
through  the  cultivation  of  tropical  fruits.  The  De 
partment  of  Agriculture  at  Washington  is  now  coop 
erating  with  the  University  of  Arizona  in  supporting 
at  Tempe,  near  Phoenix,  an  experimental  garden  for 
date  palms.  These  trees  need  plenty  of  water  for 
the  roots,  a  hot,  dry  atmosphere  for  the  foliage,  and 
winters  not  too  severe.  The  tree  will  flourish  in 
Florida,  but  the  southern  summer  is  neither  hot  nor 
dry  enough  to  mature  the  fruit.  It  is  at  home  in  the 
Sahara,  and  at  a  single  point  in  southeastern  Spain. 
In  1900  the  Department  brought  from  Algeria  shoots 
of  the  best  varieties,  and  experiments  are  now  in 
progress  in  Arizona  and  California.  The  fruit  will 
not  ripen  unless  the  mean  temperature  exceeds  80° 
for  a  month  in  the  summer,  with  a  mean  of  70°  from 
May  to  October.  The  soils,  however,  must  be  moist, 


250  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

and  will  not  injure  the  plant  if  they  are  alkaline,  as 
is  often  the  case  in  arid  regions.  Earlier  experiments 
have  been  tried  here,  and  a  single  tree,  eight  years 
from  the  seed,  bore  four  hundred  pounds  of  fruit  in  a 
season.  The  Colorado  Desert  in  California  is  thought 
to  be  the-  best  date  region  in  the  New  World.  It 
would  be  deeply  interesting  if  this  land  of  perpetual 
heat  and  cloudless  skies  could  be  so  watered  as  to 
grow  rich  with  this  Old  World  fruit. 

Little  attempt  has  been  made  to  use  the  water  of 
the  Colorado  River.  For  much  of  its  course  the 
deep  canyons  prevent  all  diversion  to  the  adjoining 
lands,  but  there  is  no  good  reason  why  considerable 
patches  of  the  hot  desert  farther  south  should  not  be 
reclaimed.  Some  of  this  land  in  southern  California 
lies  three  hundred  feet  below  the  sea  level,  being 
isolated  from  the  Gulf  of  California  by  the  delta  of 
the  river.  Exceptional  floods  now  and  then  break 
across  the  river  banks  and  form  a  lake  in  this  de 
pressed  area,  a  lake  which  is  at  length  destroyed  by 
soakage  and  evaporation.  If  nature  can  do  this,  man 
might  make  canals  serve  a  like  purpose.  His  great 
est  obstacle  would  be  the  silting  of  the  ditches  by  the 
waste  with  which  the  river  is  heavily  loaded. 

Along  with  a  new  reservoir  on  the  Gila  River,  it  is 
proposed  to  control  the  waters  of  St.  Mary  River  in 
Montana,  keep  them  from  running  their  natural 
course  into  Canada,  and  turn  them  into  the  head 
waters  of  the  Missouri,  and  make  them  the  means  of 
reclaiming,  on  their  way,  several  hundred  thousand 
acres  of  land.  Whether  such  diversion  of  waters 
might  become  a  still  wider  question  is  a  problem  for 


WHERE    LITTLE    RAIN   FALLS  251 

those  familiar  with  international  law.  It  would  not 
be  difficult  at  least  to  raise  the  question  of  equity  on 
our  southern  border,  if  erelong  the  progress  of  agri 
culture  in  Colorado  and  New  Mexico  should  dry  up 
the  Rio  Grande  and  destroy  the  value  of  lands  that 
lie  across  the  Mexican  boundary  and  have  been  for 
generations  refreshed  by  the  waters  of  the  river. 

America  is  surely  not  a  good  field  for  showing 
what,  in  the  long  run,  geographic  environment  can 
do  with  a  people.  History  is  here  too  short,  and  the 
tree  is  but  a  sapling,  not  bearing  its  mature  fruits. 
And  our  people  have  scarcely  recovered  from  the 
shock  of  migration,  and  we  do  not  know  to  what 
account  our  changes  should  be  charged.  And  we 
are  a  mixture  of  races,  forming  something  as  yet  new 
and  unknown,  and  who  can  tell  how  much  is  due  to 
country  and  how  much  to  amalgamation?  No  result 
may  fairly  be  called  final,  and  no  type  has  been  per 
fected.  We  can  only  study  beginnings. 

We  know  well  what  the  desert  type  of  society  has 
always  been,  —  nomadic  and  tribal,  without  cities, 
without  settled  interests,  and  almost  without  tillage 
of  the  soil.  Flocks  and  herds  were  appropriate  to 
the  wastes  of  the  Orient,  familiar  to  us  in  many 
annals  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  in  the  tales  of 
.many  a  traveler.  The  heat  of  the  plains,  the  keen 
ness  of  the  sun,  the  coolness  of  shadow,  the  precious- 
ness  of  springs, — these  are  the  earmarks  of  desert 
literature.  Houses  must  be  tents,  or  something  easily 
renewed,  in  a  migrating  society,  and  the  garb  must 
protect  from  heat  by  day  and  the  chill  air  by  night. 
Or,  if  life  is  more  settled,  the  primitive  man  or  the 


252  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

pioneer  must  build  his  hut  as  he  can ;  if  he  is  in  the 
"  short  grass  "  country,  that  is,  on  the  high  plains, 
he  uses  sod,  and  in  the  arid  belt,  or  "bunch  grass" 
country,  he  must  have  recourse  to  "  adobe,"  or  sun- 
dried  mud. 

An  environment  so  pronounced  could  not  be  without 
its  distinct  power  over  thought  and  spirit.     Nowhere 


FIG.  53.  Desert  Valley  at  the  Base  of  the  House  Range,  Utah.  The 
skeleton  is  that  of  a  horse.  The  lower  part  of  the  valley  is  un- 
drained,  holds  a  shallow  lake  after  a  storm,  and  is  covered  with  a 
fine  earth,  "  adobe,"  containing  gypsum  and  salt. 

is  this  more  finely  seen  than  in  the  literature  of  the 
Bible,  perhaps  superlatively  in  the  Psalms.  In  the 
desert  the  very  insects  seem  to  catch  the  spirit  of 
the  place  and  make  themselves  over  into  a  protective 
oneness  with  its  gray  and  neutral  tones.  And  the 
dweller  in  verdant  lands,  entering  the  desert  wastes 
with  a  recoil  from  their  dryness  and  silence  and  soli 
tariness,  finds  himself  after  a  time  bound  by  their 


WHERE   LITTLE    RAIN    FALLS  253 

spell.  He  has  never  breathed  air  so  pure  and  so 
purged  from  all  odors,  he  has  never  looked  into  such 
measureless  depths  of  stars,  he  never  knew  or  dreamed 
that  the  desert  could  be  so  full  of  life,  that  its  trails 
and  water  pockets,  its  grasses  and  its  sage-brush,  its 
coyotes  and  jack-rabbits,  its  rocks  and  its  bordering 
mountains,  all  conspire  to  make  a  world  in  the  wilder 
ness.  "  The  absence  of  dark  green  is  soon  not  noticed, 
for  the  grays,  reds,  browns,  and  yellows  are  so  quiet, 
so  soothing,  so  varying  in  their  intensity,  and  so 
thoroughly  mingled  that  their  quality  cannot  but  be 
constantly  in  mind.  To  see  the  grand  colors  of  a 
deep  brown  cliff  brought  out  in  a  clear  moonlight  is 
to  see  one  of  the  most  wonderful  effects.  In  the  desert 
tints,  as  in  the  green  of  the  humid  country,  the  value 
of  shadows  in  bringing  out  the  quality  and  the 
contrast  is  not  to  be  overlooked.  In  fact,  after  we 
become  accustomed  to  the  desert  range  of  colors,  the 
green  of  an  oasis  comes  with  a  shock,  like  a  mis 
placed  touch  in  a  beautiful  picture."  l 

Arid  America  will  not  be,  in  just  this  way,  the  land 
of  the  imagination,  when  the  American  of  to-day  has 
tried  his  hand  upon  it.  If  there  were  water  enough, 
he  would  moisten  it  all,  and  make  it  as  populous  as 
Massachusetts ;  but  nature  will  have  her  way  with 
much  of  it,  and  man  will  cross  it  with  his  railways  and 
range  over  it  with  his  herds,  but  he  may  only  settle  it 
here  and  there.  But  where  man  does  conquer  a  dry 
wilderness,  the  change  is  absolute  and  profound.  In 
stead  of  a  nomad,  we  shall  find  dense  and  deep-rooted 

1  "  Life  Amid  Desert  Conditions,"  R.  E.  Dodge,  Bulletin  American 
Geographical  Society,  Vol.  XXXIV,  p.  416,  1902. 


254  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

communities,  like  jewels  in  wide  settings  of  gray 
desert.  In  a  large  settlement  the  single  farmer  can 
not  make  his  own  ditch  from  the  river,  but  there  must 
be  communal  or  government  action.  This,  with  small 
farms,  intensive  tillage,  and  close  contacts  every 
where,  compels  an  approach  to  socialistic  conditions 
that  may  never  be  reached  on  the  watered  prairies  oj 
among  the  Appalachians,  where  in  some  larger  meas 
ure  each  man  can  be  a  law  to  himself. 

Indeed,  most  of  the  embarrassment  and  embittering 
litigation  of  the  arid  country  has  arisen  from  an 
unconscious  attempt  to  apply  the  old  English  law, 
made  for  a  moist  country,  that  allows  a  man  to  con 
trol  the  water  that  flows  past  or  across  his  land.  It 
has  been  well  said  that  in  an  arid  country  water  is 
like  sunshine  and  air,  and  to  monopolize  it  is  infamous. 

The  young  state  of  Wyoming  has  led  the  way  in 
brushing  aside  the  injustice  of  ancient  customs,  and 
the  burden  of  unfit  statute,  and  placing  under  just 
public  regulation  all  the  waters  within  her  boundaries. 
She  is  fast  being  followed  by  older  states,  and  we  may 
look  with  amazement  upon  a  flourishing  common 
wealth,  less  than  thirteen  years  a  member  of  the  Union, 
rising  in  population,  strong  in  agriculture  and  in 
mining  interests,  with  a  well-developed  educational 
system  and  an  enlightened  government,  where  a 
generation  ago  there  appeared  a  high  and  barren 
plateau  beset  with  rugged  mountains. 


CHAPTER    IX 

MOUNTAIN,    MINE,   AND    FOREST 

THE  East  has  its  mountain  ranges  and  they  are 
covered  with  forests ;  but  the  mountains  are  low  and 
in  no  important  degree  do  they  hold  deposits  of  gold, 
silver,  copper,  or  lead,  and  they  are  set  in  the  midst 
of  a  moist  rather  than  an  arid  land.  The  mountain 
ranges  of  the  West  are  far  from  the  older  home  of 
civilization  on  this  continent,  and  the  conditions  of 
human  life  are  as  different  as  well  could  be  from 
those  of  the  East. 

Colorado  is  in  many  ways  the  typical  western  state. 
Its  mountains  are  broad  and  high  ;  it  supplies  some 
of  the  sources  of  every  great  river  in  the  West 
except  the  Columbia ;  it  has  unequaled  mineral  re 
sources  ;  irrigates  more  land  than  any  other  state  ; 
and  has,  in  addition  to  its  mountains,  an  area  of  the 
Great  Plains  on  the  one  hand  and  a  part  of  the  Colo 
rado  plateaus  on  the  other.  Pike  entered  this  land 
in  1807,  Long  in  1819,  and  Fremont  in  1843.  Gold 
was  found  in  the  Platte  Valley  in  1858,  a  territory 
was  organized  in  1861,  and  it  became  a  state  in  the 
Union  in  the  centennial  year  of  American  indepen 
dence.  It  has  a  composite  people,  with  all  the  quali 
ties  of  the  West,  and  has  come  in  fifty  years  to  an 
advanced  civilization. 

255 


256  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

In  1893  a  historical  and  descriptive  pamphlet  was 
prepared  to  accompany  the  state's  exhibit  at  the  Co 
lumbian  Exposition.  Upon  its  cover  were  placed  the 
seal  of  the  commonwealth,  a  mine  gang  at  work,  a 
view  of  irrigated  fields  in  the  Poudre  Valley,  a  potato, 


FIG.  54.     A  Mountain  Highway,  Ute  Pass,  near  Manitou. 

and  the  state  Capitol  building  done  in  native  granite. 
If  a  university  had  been  included  and  a  mountain 
railway,  the  representation  would  have  been  com 
plete.  The  world  has  few  such  products  to  show  for 
a  half  century  of  development. 

Colorado  is  a  quadrangle  more  than  twice  as  large 
as  the  Empire  State.      North  and  south  across  the 


MOUNTAIN,   MINE,   AND    FOREST  257 

central  parts  of  the  state  lie  the  Rocky  Mountains,  a 
name  that  ought  not  to  be  used  of  mountains  farther 
west.  We  may,  however,  carry  the  name  northward 
into  Wyoming  and  Montana,  and  southward  into 
New  Mexico.  This  means  that  the  eastern  ranges 
of  the  Cordilleran  system  are  properly  the  Rocky 
Mountains. 

East  of  the  mountains,  more  than  one-third  of  Col 
orado  belongs  to  the  Great  Plains,  looking  toward 
Kansas  and  the  Mississippi  River.  West  of  the 
Rockies  is  a  region  high,  often  rocky  and  barren, 
which  continues  into  Utah  and  Arizona,  and  is  a  part 
of  the  plateau  drained  by  the  Colorado  River.  Its 
surface  is  much  more  broken  than  that  of  the  Great 
Plains ;  for  it  is  beset  with  lofty  and  pinnacled  moun 
tains,  like  the  San  Juan  in  the  southwest,  and  the 
rugged  and  tangled  Elk  Mountains  farther  north;  and 
it  is  carved  by  deep  gorges  like  the  Black  Canyon 
of  the  Gunnison,  and  the  canyon  of  the  Grand  River. 

Nor  is  the  Rocky  Mountain  Range  simple  and 
single ;  for  it  is  made  up  of  several  north  and  south 
belts  of  mountains,  separated  from  each  other  by 
broad  and  almost  treeless  valleys,  which  by  a  perver 
sity  of  language  are  known  as  parks.  Thus  as  one 
comes  from  the  eastern  plains  he  sees  the  Front 
Range  looming  on  the  horizon  back  of  Denver,  or 
south  of  the  Arkansas  it  is  the  Wet  Mountain 
Range  or  the  Sangre  de  Cristo.  Back  of  these 
mountains  is  a  chain  of  parks,  —  North,  Middle, 
South,  Huerfano,  and  San  Luis.  These  are  smooth 
floors  sloping  gently  up  to  the  base  of  the  mountains 
all  around,  and  from  six  to  seven  thousand  feet 


258  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

above  the  sea.  Their  strata  are  young  and  loosely 
put  together,  having  been  washed  in  by  mountain 
streams  from  every  side.  North  of  the  Arkansas 
River  the  parks  are  too  cold  for  grain  and  fruit,  but 
yield  pasturage.  To  the  south,  as  in  San  Luis 
Valley,  along  the  upper  Rio  Grande,  thousands  of 
acres  are  under  the  ditch.  West  of  North  and  Mid 
dle  parks  is  the  Park  Range,  a  part  of  the  Conti 
nental  Divide.  West  of  South  Park  is  the  Mosquito 
Range  and  the  Sawatch,  the  latter  separating  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  waters;  and  between  the  Mos 
quito  and  the  Sawatch  is  the  open,  longitudinal  valley 
of  the  upper  Arkansas  River,  which  turns  at  Salida 
and  passes,  by  the  Royal  Gorge,  through  the  moun 
tains  to  the  plains.  West  of  San  Luis  Park  are  the 
heights  of  the  San  Juan. 

Perhaps  best  by  a  study  of  the  drainage  does 
one  learn  and  remember  the  physiognomy  of  a  new 
country.  On  the  east  the  South  Platte  and  Ar 
kansas  extend  many  slender  fingers  up  the  slopes 
and  gather  the  abundant  moisture  of  the  mountains. 
The  Platte  reaches  into  South  Park,  and  the  Arkan 
sas  into  the  heart  of  the  mountains  around  Leadville. 
The  North  Park  drains  by  the  North  Platte  out  into 
Wyoming ;  while  to  the  south  into  New  Mexico 
flows  the  Rio  Grande.  On  the  west  the  Grand  flows 
from  Middle  Park,  the  Gunnison  from  Marshall  Pass, 
the  Animas  from  the  southwest,  and  the  White  and 
Yampa  from  the  northwest.  Colorado  has  not  gla 
ciers  to  feed  its  streams,  but  it  does  scatter  its  waters 
in  every  direction,  like  the  Po,  the  Rhone,  the  Dan 
ube,  and  the  Rhine,  coming  from  Alpine  sources. 


MOUNTAIN,   MINE,    AND   FOREST  259 

We  shall  have  a  suitable  idea  of  Colorado  if 
we  think  of  it  as  an  upland  whose  general  surface 
is  from  4000  to  7000  feet  above  the  sea,  with  long 
and  strong  ranges  of  mountains  resting  on  it,  and 
rearing  many  peaks  to  heights  of  a  little  more  than 
14,000  feet.  If  the  land  mass  of  Florida  were  so 
graded  as  to  be  everywhere  of  equal  height  above  the 
level  of  the  ocean,  this  average  altitude  would  be  100 
feet.  The  average  altitude  of  New  York  is  about  900 
feet,  that  of  Oregon  is  3300  feet,  and  of  Colo 
rado,  the  highest  of  all  the  states,  6800  feet.  Thus 
a  rarefied  atmosphere  is  to  be  added  to  our  catalogue 
of  conditions  that  here  make  up  the  environment  of 
man. 

Nearly  as  many  kinds  of  natural  causes  for  the 
growth  of  towns  can  be  found  in  Colorado  as  would 
reward  inquiry  in  any  other  state.  These  causes 
sometimes  lie  close  at  hand,  and  often  in  the  more 
general  conditions.  Denver  belongs  to  the  latter  class. 
It  might,  so  far  as  the  stream  is  concerned,  have  been 
at  any  other  point  on  the  South  Platte  River.  But  it 
is  on  the  plains,  where  it  was  accessible  to  all  lines  of 
railway.  On  the  east  is  the  long  approach  from  the 
Mississippi  River.  From  Wyoming  on  the  north  and 
New  Mexico  on  the  south  the  lines  of  traffic  follow 
the  eastern  base  of  the  mountains.  And  twelve  miles 
to  the  west  the  Clear  Creek  passes  from  the  mountains 
to  the  plains.  In  the  deep  narrow  valleys  of  this 
stream  and  its  branches  are  the  older  mining  camps, 
which  developed  forty  years  ago  and  ran  the  output 
of  gold  and  silver  far  into  the  millions.  For  the  sale 
of  ores  and  the  entrance  of  supplies  Denver  was  the 


260 


GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 


center,  and  such  it  has  remained,  as  remoter  and  richer 
masses  of  ore  have  been  brought  to  light  in  later 
years  throughout  the  state.  It  is  the  business  and 
financial  headquarters  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and 
the  metropolis  of  the  region  between  Kansas  City  or 
Omaha  and  San  Francisco.  It  has  a  relative  impor 
tance  which  no  town  of  its  size  could  have  in  the  East. 


FIG.  55.     Product  of  a  Leadville  Smelter.    The  "  Pigs  "  contain  Silver, 
Gold,  Lead,  and  Copper. 

A  village  added  to  Toledo  would  bring  it  up  to  Denver 
with  its  134,000  people.  Rochester  has  28,000  more 
people  than  Denver,  while  Newark  equals  Colorado's 
four  largest  towns  combined  and  has  50,000  to  spare. 
But  Denver  is  the  focus  of  larger  interests  than  belong 
to  any  of  these  eastern  cities,  and  we  are  not  to  forget 
that  Denver  dates  from  1858,  that  she  had  but  35,000 
people  in  1880,  and  that  she  trebled  her  population  in 
the  next  ten  years. 


MOUNTAIN,   MINE,   AND    FOREST  261 

The  resident  of  Colorado  Springs  makes  light  and 
cheerful  reference  to  the  population  of  "  lungers," 
of  which  perchance  he  is  one,  and  tells  you  that  the 
place  is  "a  very  good  Siberia."  But  as  a  land  of 
exile  he  does  not  seriously  regard  it,  nor  should  he. 
The  town  was  founded  through  the  force  of  an  unusual 
motive,  for  in  the  summer  of  1871  its  site  was  delib 
erately  chosen  for  a  health  resort.  The  dry  air,  the 
towering  Pike's  Peak  and  lovely  Cheyenne  Mountain, 
the  springs  of  Manitou,  and  the  weird  monuments  of 
the  Garden  of  the  Gods,  with  natural  routes  of  travel 
along  the  plains  and  through  the  passes  of  the  Front 
Range,  —  these  make  the  geographic  foundation ; 
while  thirty-five  years  ago  it  could  not  have  been  fore 
seen  that  the  richest  mining  district  now  open  in  the 
state,  at  Cripple  Creek,  would  be  largely  tributary  to 
Colorado  Springs. 

Pueblo  was  a  village  of  less  than  a  thousand  in 
1870,  and  is  now  the  second  town  in  Colorado.  Sev 
eral  conditions  combine  to  rear  a  city.  It  is  on  the 
highway  leading  south  from  Denver  ;  it  is  on  the 
Arkansas  River  at  the  gateway  of  the  Rocky  Moun 
tains  ;  it  is  within  easy  hauling  distance  of  ores,  coal, 
and  flux,  and  draws  tribute  from  the  agricultural  belt 
along  the  Arkansas  River  above  and  below. 

Thus  the  three  largest  towns  of  Colorado  occupy 
similar  sites  at  the  eastern  foot  of  the  mountains ; 
none  of  them  are  surrounded  by  mineral  deposits,  but 
the  three  owe  much  of  their  wealth  to  the  stores  so 
long  hidden  in  the  mountains  on  the  west. 

Of  the  mining  towns  are  Aspen  in  the  west ;  Creede 
in  the  south ;  Ouray,  Silverton,  and  Rico  in  the  San 


262  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

Juan ;  Cripple  Creek  in  the  east;  —  we  pass  them  and 
take  Leadville,  in  the  center  of  Colorado,  two  miles 
above  sea  level,  in  the  heart  of  the  mountains.  It 
does  not  require  long  in  America  for  gold,  or  silver, 
or  gas,  or  oil,  to  make  a  town.  The  mining  that  made 
Leadville  was  not  the  first  in  the  neighborhood.  Cali 
fornia  Gulch  cuts  the  Mosquito  Range  east  of  the 
upper  Arkansas.  Here  Tabor,  later  a  senator  of  the 
United  States,  and  his  partner  washed  the  placer 
gravels  and  cleaned  up  $75,000  in  sixty  days.  They 
and  others  were  always  annoyed  by  masses  of  heavy 
iron-stained  rock  that  clogged  the  sluices ;  but  these 
alien  pieces  of  mineral  proved  to  belong  to  the  silver- 
bearing  carbonates  that  would  yield  untold  millions. 
From  a  mine  salted  by  one  "  Chicken  Bill,"  and 
refused  by  Denver  buyers  who  found  out  the  trick, 
Tabor  afterward  took  $1,500,000,  and  then  sold  it 
for  an  equal  sum.  A  mine  sold  in  the  morning  for 
$50,000  was  bought  back  by  the  same  parties  in  the 
evening  for  $225,000.  Where  in  1877  there  was  a 
post-office  with  200  people,  there  was  in  1879  the 
second  city  of  Colorado,  with  a  population  of  15,000. 
A  year  later  there  were  almost  thirty  miles  of  streets, 
gas,  water,  thirteen  schools,  and  five  churches. 

Unlike  some  boom  towns  its  life  continues,  though 
more  quietly.  The  count  of  1900  showed  12,000 
people  and  more ;  and  you  may  enter  Leadville  by 
rail  from  the  east,  south,  and  west,  and  regulating 
your  steps  with  moderation  needful  to  a  "  tender 
foot"  at  an  altitude  of  two  miles,  may  wander 
among  the  dump  heaps  of  Carbonate  Hill,  descend 
the  shafts,  visit  the  smelters,  or  look  off  upon  the 


MOUNTAIN,   MINE,   AND    FOREST  263 

rocky  crests  and  snowy  gorges  of  the  Continental 
Divide. 

The  mining  interests  of  Colorado  have  been  about 
equally  distributed  on  the  two  sides  of  the  Conti 
nental  Divide.  West  of  the  mountains  is  Aspen, 
which  for  several  years  was  one  of  the  first  mining 
camps  in  the  West.  Here  is  the  Mollie  Gibson  Mine 
from  which  $60,000  in  value  were  once  taken  in 
eight  hours.  One  car  of  ore  weighing  twenty-four 
tons  was  worth  $76,500.  One  hardly  need  say  that 
such  cars  were  protected,  en  route  to  the  smelters, 
by  armed  guards. 

We  have  seen  how  the  need  of  irrigation  forces 
a  recasting  of  the  laws  concerning  water.  Thus 
mining  has  its  code,  one  point  of  which  is  that  the 
lode  or  vein,  which  often  is  not  far  from  vertical,  can 
be  followed  to  the  depths  by  the  owner  of  its  outcrop, 
even  though  it  runs  beneath  his  neighbor's  claim. 
But  at  Aspen  and  Leadville  " blanket  lodes"  were 
found,  which  in  geological  phrase  means  that  the  ore- 
bearing  mass  is  not  a  vein,  but  a  bed.  Now  a  bed  is 
often  horizontal,  and  it  would  be  clearly  unjust  to 
allow  it  to  be  followed  indefinitely.  Both  veins  and 
blanket  lodes  run  so  indefinitely,  that  in  a  rich  region 
the  courts  are  full  of  claims,  representing  a  fierce 
underground  war  for  the  treasures  of  the  mountains. 

Another  great  cluster  of  mining  communities  has 
grown  up  in  the  rugged  San  Juan  corner  of  Colorado, 
so  that  the  excitements  and  fascinations  of  the  claim, 
the  tunnel  and  the  shaft,  often  overshadow  the  more 
sober  but  equally  rich  agricultural  interests  of  the 
Centennial  State.  Yet  here,  as  everywhere  in  the 


264  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

western  country,  the  crude  life  and  unsystematic 
methods  of  prospecting,  mining,  and  ore  reduction 
have  largely  given  way  to  systematic,  scientific  oper 
ations,  with  abundant  capital  and  sober  business 
management. 

Many  things  must  be  remembered  if  we  would  un 
derstand  the  human  type  which  is  unfolding  in  these 
mountains.  The  cowboy  does  riot  typify  the  life  of 
the  plains  and  Rocky  Mountain  plateaus,  though  we 
could  not  know  its  beginnings  or  fully  understand  its 
quality  without  studying  him.  Nor  does  the  miner, 
to  whom  we  are  introduced  in  Bret  Harte's  tales,  re 
flect  all,  or  the  most,  that  is  to  be  found  in  the  Rock 
ies  and  the  Sierras ;  yet  he  does  most  truly  enter  into 
it,  and  we  could  not  know  the  West  if  we  left  him 
out. 

He  is  the  hardy  spirit  who  in  1 849  or  the  decades  that 
followed  found  eastern  life  too  cramped  to  suit  him, 
or  had  seen  ill  fortune  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  or 
had  found  prairie  farming  too  slow,  or  perchance 
had  not  been  a  welcome  member  of  settled  society. 
Whatever  his  conditions,  he  found  himself  in  a  land 
of  realities  and  of  dreams,  and  there  were  no  greater 
dreams  than  some  of  the  realities ;  he  was  apart 
from  the  restraints  of  society,  and  was  often  the 
more  careless  and  violent,  but  more  honest  rather 
than  less,  for  there  is  something  in  the  western  air, 
belonging  perhaps  to  any  frontier,  which  keeps 
being  and  seeming  close  together,  and  marks  hypoc 
risy  as  the  most  loathsome  of  vices.  Unduly  careless 
it  may  be  of  conventionality,  a  new  country  frees 
itself  from  many  self-imposed  thralls  of  older  com- 


MOUNTAIN,   MINE,   AND    FOREST 


265 


munities.  As  the  frontiersman  is  free  from  the  re 
straints,  so  he  is  bereft  of  the  protection,  of  civilized 
society,  and  he  becomes  his  own  sheriff,  court,  and 
executioner ;  and  the  past  generation  in  California  or 
Arizona  has  in  this  regard  brought  back  the  condi 
tions  of  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  years  ago  on  the 
Holston  and  the  Cumberland. 


FIG.  56.     Panning  Gold  at  Cripple  Creek  in  Earlier  Days. 

The  very  names  given  to  the  mines  are  full  of  the 
flavor  of  the  frontier,  and  draw,  in  a  bold  line  or  two, 
pictures  of  men  that  must  decide  instantly,  stake  all 
on  a  venture,  and  follow  failure  with  another  trial, 
untrammeled  by  ordinary  standards  of  conduct,  and 
undismayed  even  by  fate.  Some  personal  history 
of  success  or  failure  is  often  hinted,  —  Lost  Contact, 


266  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

Last  Dollar,  Puzzler,  Pay  Rock,  Last  Chance.  The 
fair  sex  are  generously  remembered,  —  Yankee  Girl, 
Henrietta,  Minnie,  Delia,  Edith,  Little  Annie,  and 
Maid  of  Erin.  And  some  shall  remain  unclassified, 
—  Smuggler,  Modoc,  Argonaut,  Big  Indian,  Mul- 
doon,  Whale,  Holy  Moses,  and  Morning  Glim.  Even 
the  saloons  are  not  to  be  outdone  in  invention,  — 
First  Chance  (at  the  fringe  of  the  camp),  Chamber 
of  Commerce,  Board  of  Trade,  Early  Morning,  and 
Magnet. 

>  Shall  we  say  that  the  young,  the  hardy,  and  the 
daring  went  West?  And  when  they  reached  the 
mountains  they  dropped  the  shell  of  custom,  took  up 
their  great  tasks,  grew  strong  with  achievement,  made 
fortunes  for  themselves  or  others,  and  hewed  out 
states.  He  looks  on  the  surface,  who  sees  only 
profanity  and  light  regard  of  human  life,  and  does 
not  see  the  bursting  of  a  seed  in  new  soil,  and  its 
upward  growth  in  air  free  from  the  vapors  of  the  low 
land  and  the  fogs  of  the  sea  border,  where  the  sun 
ever  shines,  the  pulse  beats  sturdily,  and  all  the 
physical  conditions  tend  to  maintain,  into  more  settled 
days,  the  energy  and  pace  of  the  frontier  period. 

It  is  hardly  safe  to  discount  a  pair  of  overalls 
anywhere,  much  less  among  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
There  are  universities  now  among  the  heights,  and  if 
there  were  not,  under  the  coarse  garb  is  apt  to  be  a 
son  of  Harvard,  Yale,  Columbia,  or  Michigan.  With 
enterprise  go  cordiality  and  helpfulness,  and  neither 
projects  nor  men  are  scrutinized  with  long  and  suspi 
cious  gaze  before  confidence  is  extended.  And  there 
is  more  moderation  than  the  East  gives  the  West 


MOUNTAIN,   MINE,    AND   FOREST  267 

credit  for  having.*  In  the  depressing  months  of  1893, 
among  the  mines,  one  heard  no  recriminations,  and 
more  often  a  pleasantry,  as  upon  the  "  inconvenience 
of  having  a  poor  father-in-law."  And  there  was 
no  disloyalty  to  the  western  home.  "  You'll  dream 
about  this  country,"  said  an  old-timer  from  Aspen, 
coming  through  South  Park.  And  a  mulatto  woman 
in  a  town  on  the  Rio  Grande  and  Western  voiced  be 
yond  doubt  the  feeling  of  every  citizen  of  Colorado, 
—"Well,  I'm /tea/i,  and  I  guess  unless  there's  a  mighty 
upheaval,  I'll  stay  heah  !  " 

If  we  follow  the  Rocky  Mountains  southward,  they 
will  carry  us  into  New  Mexico,  and  when  we  have 
reached  Sante  Fe  or  Las  Vegas,  the  ranges  have 
melted  away  into  the  plateau,  lofty  and  dry,  of  which 
the  territory  is  mainly  composed.  Southward,  in 
western  Texas,  distinctive  ranges  reappear,  and  con 
nect,  across  the  Rio  Grande,  with  the  mountains  of 
Mexico.  Eastern  New  Mexico  continues  the  high 
plains  of  Texas,  and  must  mainly  serve  as  a  land  of 
pasturage,  except  where  irrigation  is  possible.  This 
limits  tillage  to  the  borders  of  the  Canadian  and  Pecos 
rivers.  Western  New  Mexico  is  much  of  it  too  arid 
even  for  herds,  except  along  the  San  Juan  River  in 
the  northwest,  which  gains  thus  a  store  of  water  from 
the  mountains  of  Colorado.  The  chief  stream  is  the 
Rio  Grande,  which  divides  the  territory  from  north 
to  south.  But  here  comes  in  a  vexatious  interstate 
problem,  for  there  are  canals  enough  on  the  upper 
river  in  Coloradp  to  take  all  the  water  in  the  dry 
months,  and  no  water  now  reaches  the  southern  end 
of  the  territory  during  the  irrigation  season.  The 


268  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

only  solution  apparently  lies  in  the   construction  of 
reservoirs. 

Northward  the  Rocky  Mountains  lead  us  into  Wyo 
ming.  It  is  a  state  similar  in  size,  shape,  and  climate 
to  Colorado.  Like  its  neighbor,  it  is  made  up  of 
mountain  and  plateau,  but  the  differences  are  impor 
tant.  Colorado  has  a  continuous  backbone  of  high 
mountains.  In  Wyoming  the  ranges  break  down, 
leaving  an  easy  passage  from  east  to  west  through  its 
central  parts.  This  easy  way  has  been  found  and 
followed  by  the  Union  Pacific  Railway  in  its  course 
from  Nebraska  to  Utah.  The  Park  Range  from 
Colorado  fades  out  in  southern  Wyoming;  but  the 
mountains  reappear  in  rugged  grandeur  in  central  and 
northwestern  Wyoming,  in  the  Wind  River  Range, 
with  its  gorges  and  glaciers,  and  with  few  peaks  ever 
scaled  by  man.  Out  of  the  northwestern  corner  of 
the  state  is  carved  the  Yellowstone  National  Park. 

Wyoming  is  in  its  drainage  almost  as  inclusive  as 
Colorado.  From  the  North  Park  in  the  latter  state  it 
receives  the  North  Platte  head  waters,  which  take  a 
wide  curve  in  the  heart  of  the  region.  Northward  it 
sends  the  North  Cheyenne,  the  Powder,  and  the  Big 
Horn  to  the  Missouri.  Over  against  the  sources  of 
the  Big  Horn  River  the  Wind  River  Mountains  send 
rolling  to  the  south  a  great  portion  of  the  waters  that 
have  worn  the  canyons  of  the  Colorado,  while  in  the 
west  the  Snake  River  gathers  its  contribution  for  the 
Columbia.  Without  violating  strong  state  pride  one 
may  yet  aver,  that  having  told  the  story  of  one  Rocky 
Mountain  state,  it  has  been,  in  essentials,  told  for  all. 
Each  has  its  mountains  and  dry  uplands,  each  has  its 


MOUNTAIN,   MINE,    AND    POOREST  269 

waters  of  which  it  saves  as  much  as  it  can,  each  sends 
its  herds  over  wide  ranges  for  the  sparse  but  nutritious 
grasses  of  the  desert,  and  each  has  its  share  of  min 
eral  wealth.  More  than  six  hundred  thousand  acres 
are  under  the  ditch  in  Wyoming,  and  nearly  all  of 
this  land  is  devoted  to  forage  crops,  for  agriculture 
here  belongs  almost  entirely  to  the  herd. 

The  ranges  of  the  northern  Rockies  are  in  Mon 
tana  and  Idaho,  and  their  direction  is  northwest  and 
southeast.  They  are  rugged,  but  not  so  lofty  as  the 
mountains  of  Colorado,  and  being  farther  north  they 
harbor  most  of  the  small  glaciers  yet  remaining  in 
the  Rocky  Mountain  region.  Here  are  the  northern 
sources  of  the  Missouri  and  the  southern  sources  of 
the  Columbia  River.  Montana  is  a  vast  state,  with  a 
broad  western  hem  of  mountains,  and  a  wide  stretch 
of  plateau  watered  and  drained  by  the  Missouri  and 
its  branches.  Being  in  the  far  northwest,  it  has  been 
occupied  until  recent  years  by  those  who  were  willing 
to  live  in  isolation  and  care  for  cattle  and  sheep,  or 
by  those  who,  with  more  adventure  or  more  capital, 
sought  mineral  treasure  among  the  mountains  about 
Butte  and  Bozeman.  But  with  a  climate  not  too 
severe  and  wide  areas  of  arable  soil,  agriculture  has 
risen  to  enormous  proportions,  and  the  ranch  shares 
the  state  with  closely  settled  groups  of  farmers. 
Almost  a  million  acres  are  now  subject  to  irrigation, 
as  much  as  in  Colorado  or  California  a  few  years  ago. 
The  climate  is  more  moist  than  in  the  states  to  the 
south,  and  being  cooler  there  is  less  evaporation,  so 
that  much  more  is  possible  without  irrigation  than  in 
most  plateau  and  mountain  states.  Two  transconti- 


270  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

nental  lines  of  railway  serve  for  exchange  with  the 
East  and  the  Pacific  coast. 

Like  Montana,  Idaho  consists  of  mountain  and 
plateau,  but  the  latter  is  of  another  origin.  The 
plateau  of  Montana  is  but  a  westward  extension  of 
the  Great  Plains,  and  in  its  northeast  has  an  area  of 
dissected  strata  forming  bad  lands,  which  are  wholly 
as  bad  as  any  in  Nebraska  or  Dakota.  The  plateau 
in  Idaho  lies  broadly  along  the  Snake  River,  which, 
rising  in  the  Wind  River  Mountains  of  Wyoming, 
crosses  southern  Idaho  by  a  wide  curve  from  east  to 
west.  Here  are  the  beginnings  of  the  lava  plains 
of  the  Northwest,  and  they  occupy  many  thousand 
square  miles,  stretching  broadly  across  southern 
Idaho  and  far  over  the  eastern  parts  of  Oregon  and 
Washington,  along  the  Snake  and  Columbia  rivers. 
These  lavas  have  been  poured  out  of  many  vents  or 
fissures  now  concealed  and  unknown,  and  are  in 
some  places  three  or  four  thousand  feet  in  thickness. 
Often  they  have  exceedingly  smooth  surfaces,  and 
elsewhere  they  are  diversified  by  volcanic  cones  and 
necks,  by  dislocations  and  by  deep-cut  channels  of 
streams,  such  as  the  canyons  of  the  Snake  River. 
The  prevailing  species  of  vegetation  is  sage-brush, 
which  gives  its  hue  to  the  landscape ;  but  hundreds 
of  other  plants  occur,  and  the  grasses  furnish  pastur 
age,  and  the  soils  when  brought  under  the  ditch  are 
productive.  And  in  the  more  northerly  parts  of 
Idaho,  and  near  the  base  of  the  mountains,  are  lands 
better  watered  and  raising  the  hardier  grains  and 
fruits  freely.  Few  states  show  more  variety  of  sur 
face  than  Utah.  In  most  of  its  eastern  half  are  the 


2/2  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

Colorado  or  High  Plateaus,  regions  of  horizontal 
strata  whose  capping  beds  are  six  to  eight  thousand 
feet  above  the  sea,  broken  into  blocks  by  profound 
fissures,  and  dissected  by  streams,  forming  canyons 
only  inferior  in  greatness  to  the  Grand  Canyon  of 
Arizona.  On  the  borders  of  the  Colorado  are  the 
Henry  Mountains,  formed  by  subterranean  intrusions 
of  lava  which  domed  up  the  overlying  strata.  The 
present  mountain  form  has  been  reached  through  the 
removal  by  surface  erosion  of  the  upper  parts  of 
the  domes,  down  into  the  lava  itself. 

In  the  north  are  high  mountains  of  another  sort. 
Contrary  to  Cordilleran  custom,  the  range  of  the 
Uinta  Mountains  runs  east  and  west  —  a  broad  up- 
arching  of  the  strata,  making  a  range  eleven  thou 
sand  feet  in  height.  It  stands  like  a  rampart  against 
the  border  of  Wyoming,  and  through  it  the  Green 
River  has  cut  a  sinuous  gorge. 

On  the  west  the  plateaus  are  bordered  by  the  Wa- 
satch  Mountains,  which  present  a  less  imposing  front 
to  the  higher  land  on  the  east,  but  rise  lofty  and 
magnificent  from  the  Great  Basin.  The  basin  we 
have  entered  already,  to  observe  its  ancient  shore 
lines,  its  lake-bottom  soils,  its  narrow  ranges  of 
mountains,  and  its  clusters  of  human  habitations 
clinging  to  the  streams  of  the  Wasatch.  Four 
groups  of  mountain  heights,  all  showing  important 
differences  of  origin  and  structure,  and  two  sets  of 
plateaus,  one  lofty  and  broken,  the  other  low  and 
smooth,  fresh  waters,  salt  waters,  deserts,  forests  and 
farms,  gardens  and  mines  —  such  are  the  contrasts 
of  this  central  commonwealth  of  the  Cordilleras. 


MOUNTAIN,   MINE,   AND    FOREST  2/3 

No  state  has  more  curious  interest  than  Nevada, 
whose  conditions  as  a  whole  are  more  discouraging, 
not  to  say  hostile,  to  human  life  than  in  any  other 
field  of  the  western  United  States.  With  western 
Utah  it  is  a  part,  and  by  far  the  greater  part,  of  the 
Great  Basin.  It  is  shut  in  by  the  Wasatch  on  the 
east  and  the  towering  Sierras  on  the  west.  It  sends 
no  stream  to  the  sea,  and  the  rivers  which  its  meager 
waters  keep  in  flow  lose  themselves  in  lakes  which 
often  become  alkaline  flats  in  the  dry  season.  Like 
Utah,  Nevada  bears  the  records  of  a  vast  prehistoric 
lake,  not  so  large  nor  so  compact  as  its  eastern  neigh 
bor,  the  Lake  Lahontan  of  the  geologists.  The 
land  is  about  five  thousand  feet  above  the  ocean  at 
the  north,  and  declines  below  the  level  of  the  sea  in 
the  extreme  south  of  the  basin.  The  Basin  Ranges 
interrupt  the  plains  and  save  them  from  the  monot 
ony  and  dryness  of  absolute  desert. 

Nevada  could  scarcely  have  been  admitted  to  the 
Union  but  for  political  necessity,  and  now  has  a  pop 
ulation  of  43,335,  less  than  that  of  Akron,  O. ;  Dallas, 
Tex. ;  Holyoke,  Mass. ;  Norfolk,  Va. ;  or  Saginaw, 
Mich.  Rhode  Island  has  428,000  people,  or  407  for 
each  square  mile.  The  big  western  state,  more  than 
twice  as  large  as  New  York,  has  four-tenths  of  a 
person  for  each  square  mile.  Arid  Wyoming  has 
nearly  a  hundred  thousand,  and  Oklahoma,  not  yet 
admitted  to  statehood,  has  almost  four  hundred  thou 
sand  people. 

The  future  population  of  Nevada  is  absolutely  lim 
ited  by  her  scant  supplies  of  water ;  and  yet,  with  all 
possible  storage,  some  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men 


274  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

and  women  can  find  homes  within  her  borders. 
And  when  this  day  comes  there  will  be  stable  pros 
perity,  in  no  way  like  the  fitful  boom  that  built 
Virginia  City  and  worked  the  Comstock  Lode  until 
the  scalding  waters  of  the  lower  levels  could  be 
endured  no  longer,  and  Nevada  ceased  to  herald  its 
bonanzas. 

The  state  has  three  incorporated  towns,  and  not 
one  with  a  census  roll  of  five  thousand.  Virginia 
City  declined  in  the  last  decade  from  8511  to  2695. 
But  this  is  of  small  import  when  we  look  at  the  irri 
gation  map  and  see  black  patches  representing  more 
than  a  half  million  of  acres  of  watered  lands,  whose 
annual  product  is  worth  nearly  six  million  dollars. 
For  whatever  of  human  comfort  and  prosperity  is 
possible,  the  way  is  open,  even  in  Nevada,  and,  as  in 
southern  California,  intensive  work  with  careful  adap 
tation  of  valuable  crops  to  small  watered  areas  may 
achieve  results  beyond  expectation. 

The  sparseness  of  populations  of  the  West  appears 
in  another  way.  Twelve  cities  in  the  eleven  divi 
sions  of  the  Cordilleran  belt  had,  in  1900,  twenty-five 
thousand  people  or  more.  Eight  of  these  are  in 
the  three  states  of  the  Pacific  coast,  leaving  but  four 
to  the  eight  vast  states  and  territories  that  remain. 
Those  four  are  Denver,  Pueblo,  Butte,  and  Salt  Lake 
City.  No  Cordilleran  state  or  territory  has  as  many 
as  ten  people  to  a  square  mile,  though  California 
almost  reaches  it,  and  for  more  than  half  these  states 
the  average  population  of  a  square  mile  is  less  than 
two  persons.  Even  under  the  limitations  of  the 
water  supply  the  field  for  expansion  is  enormous. 


MOUNTAIN,    MINE,   AND   FOREST  275 

In  1803  Louisiana  was  purchased,  bringing  an 
empire  to  the  United  States,  but  it  was  the  Great 
Unknown.  The  fur  trade  had  its  headquarters  at  St. 
Louis,  and  the  trappers  brought  their  pelts  and  their 
stores  from  the  plains  beyond ;  but  no  map  had  been 
made,  little  was  known  of  the  wild  and  mysterious 
tribes  of  the  upper  Missouri,  and  no  white  man  had 
seen  the  northern  Rocky  Mountains  or  gone  from 
the  Mississippi  River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Jeffer 
son  selected  Captains  Lewis  and  Clark  to  find  out 
what  lay  beyond  the  horizon,  and  with  a  small  party 
of  laborers  and  soldiers  they  left  St.  Louis  in  1803. 
They  went  up  the  Missouri  River  and  were  lost  in 
the  wilderness,  whence  they  emerged  in  1806,  having 
completed  the  most  daring,  important,  and  famous 
exploration  ever  undertaken  within  the  United  States. 
Their  route  could  be  traced  by  the  chain  of  names 
which  they  gave  to  river  and  mountain  between  the 
mouth  of  the  Missouri  and  the  mouth  of  the  Colum 
bia  rivers.  On  the  Missouri  in  Nebraska  they  made 
peace  with  the  Indians  of  the  plains,  and  of  this  the 
city  of  Council  Bluffs,  across  the  river  in  Iowa,  is 
a  memorial.  They  saw  the  dark  coniferous  forests 
of  the  Black  Hills,  passed  the  mouth  of  the  Yellow 
stone,  carried  their  boats  around  the  Great  Falls  of 
the  Missouri,  climbed  the  Rocky  Mountains,  named 
the  sources  of  the  Missouri,  went  down  into  the 
basin  of  the  Columbia,  appeased  their  hunger  upon 
its  salmon,  saw  the  glistening  Rainier,  and  camped 
upon  the  desolate  shores  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  They 
conciliated  where  they  could,  fought  where  they 
must,  waded  the  snows,  kept  their  note-books,  traced 


276 


GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 


their  maps,  finished  what  they  were  sent  to  do,  and 
came  back  to  civilization. 

In  1807  Lieutenant  Z.  M.  Pike,  having  previously 
sought   the    sources   of    the    Mississippi,   turned    his 


111 


FIG.  58.     The  Old  Way.     Pike's  Peak  Trail  at  Minnehaha  Falls. 

steps  westward  toward  the  waters  of  the  upper  Ar 
kansas,  and  fastened  his  name  upon  the  best-known 
though  not  the  highest  peak  of  the  Rocky  Moun 
tains.  Major  S.  H.  Long  went  from  Pittsburg  to 
the  Rocky  Mountains  in  1819-20,  and  likewise  left 
his  name  upon  one  of  the  lofty  peaks  of  the  Colo 
rado.  Three  years  later,  in  going  to  the  upper 


MOUNTAIN,   MINE,   AND   FOREST  277 

Mississippi  country,  he  passed  Lake  Michigan  and 
found  at  Chicago  "  a  few  miserable  huts  inhabited  by 
a  miserable  race  of  men." 

The   explorations  of  Captain  B.   L.  E.  Bonneville 
have  more  than  geographic  interest,  because  his  jour- 


FIG.  59.     The  New  Way.     Cog  Railway  at  Minnehaha  Falls. 

nals  afterward  came  under  the  editorial  hand  of 
Washington  Irving,  who  gave  them  literary  form  and 
sent  them  out  in  the  series  of  his  works.  Bonneville 
was  a  soldier,  who  asked  leave  from  the  United  States 
Army  to  carry  out,  with  such  funds  and  men  as  he 
could  himself  secure,  a  search  into  the  distant  West. 
His  work  was  done  in  the  years  1832-36  and  was 
primarily  in  the  interest  of  the  fur  trade,  a  business 


278        GEOGRAPHIC  INFLUENCES 

which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  much  primitive  history 
in  the  United  States.  Later  authorities  have  ascribed 
to  Bonneville  the  first  correct  account  of  the  drainage 
of  the  region  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  re 
gion  now  known  as  the  Great  Basin.  He  it  was  that 
showed  the  interior  character  of  this  drainage,  fixed 
the  sources  of  the  Willamette,  San  Joaquin,  and  Sac 
ramento,  and  brushed  away  some  of  the  geographic 
myths  of  Spanish  writers.  His  search  extended  to  the 
sources  of  the  Yellowstone,  of  which  he  made  a  map. 

The  explorations  of  Captain  J.  C.  Fremont  followed 
by  a  dozen  years  and  more.  His  work  suggests  the 
persistency  of  an  error  which  was  natural  enough  at 
the  time,  the  belief,  based  on  his  reports,  that  the  Great 
Basin  is  walled  in  by  lofty  mountains,  making  a  con 
tinuous  rim.  This  is  suggested  by  the  Wasatch  and 
the  Sierras  on  the  east  and  west,  but  is  not  true  to 
the  north  or  south.  Indeed,  the  long  descent  of  the 
floor  of  the  basin  southward  makes  it  perfectly  possi 
ble,  so  far  as  land  form  is  concerned,  for  an  ordinary 
drainage  system  to  develop,  to  drain  all  the  shallow 
lakes  of  the  basin  and  join  the  lower  Colorado.  The 
dryness  of  the  climate  is  the  only  obstacle. 

The  roll  of  explorers  for  the  middle  decades  of  the 
nineteenth  century  is  a  long  one,  and  bears  the  names 
of  many  soldiers,  engineers,  and  men  of  science,  and 
their  scattered  tours  and  investigations  led  down  to 
that  comprehensive  system  of  surveys  for  opening 
routes  of  travel  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  which  was  in 
operation  in  the  fifties  under  the  authority  of  the  War 
Department,  of  which  Jefferson  Davis  was  secretary. 
Profiles,  climate,  magnetism,  geology,  botany,  zoology, 


MOUNTAIN,   MINE,   AND    FOREST  279 

and  native  tribes  were  all  made  objects  of  study,  and 
a  half-dozen  routes  were  followed,  in  the  north,  in  the 
south,  and  across  the  Rockies  of  Colorado.  In  this 
region  Gunnison  sought  a  line  by  the  Sangre  de  Cristo 
Range  and  the  Coochetopa  Pass  of  the  Sawatch. 
This  was  pronounced  impossible,  and  Lieutenant 
Beckwith,  who  took  command  after  Gunnison's  death, 
said,  "  No  other  line  exists  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  this  worthy  of  any  attention  in  connection  with  the 
construction  of  a  railroad  from  the  Mississippi  River 
to  the  Great  Basin."  This  reads  oddly  in  the  presence 
of  the  Denver  and  Rio  Grande,  threading  the  Royal 
Gorge  and  the  Marshall  and  Tennessee  passes,  or  the 
Colorado  Midland,  sending  its  trains  by  Ute  Pass  and 
the  South  Park,  past  Leadville,  and  over  the  Continen 
tal  Divide. 

In  these  early  explorations  the  naturalists  who 
accompanied  the  engineers  got  their  knowledge  as 
they  could,  often  only  in  fragments  because  of  haste. 
But  there  followed  upon  the  close  of  the  Civil  War 
the  formal  geographic  and  geological  study  of  many 
areas,  by  various  bodies  known  as  the  Hayden, 
Wheeler,  King,  and  Powell  surveys,  and  finally  by 
the  United  States  Geological  Survey.  The  union  of 
theoretical  knowledge  with  the  lessons  of  experience 
has  never  had  a  finer  illustration  than  in  the  develop 
ment  of  the  mountains  and  plateaus  of  the  West. 

Will  man  in  the  West  or  in  the  East  be  friendly  to 
the  forests  ?  There  is  no  greater  economic  question 
than  this,  and  there  can  be  in  the  end  but  one 
answer,  for  experience  has  taught  hard  lessons  in 
some  parts  of  our  domain.  The  forests  are  on  the 


280  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

mountains  of  the  Cordilleran  province,  and  they 
shield  the  lowlands  of  the  Pacific  coast.  They 
belong  in  the  most  vital  way  to  the  problem  of  irri 
gation,  for  they  store  and  dole  out  the  waters  which 
otherwise  would  rush  unhindered  to  the  sea,  carrying 
the  soils  of  the  slopes,  and  destroying  the  bottom 
lands  with  floods.  Hence  the  life  of  millions  of 
people  depends  on  the  saving  of  the  forests.  It  is  a 
worthy  sentiment  that  would  save  from  fire  and  ax 
the  noble  Sequoia  that  has  been  growing  for  two 
thousand  years,  but  there  is  more  than  sentiment  in 
it.  The  earth's  machinery  is  full  of  mutually  depend 
ent  parts,  to  injure  one  of  which  is  to  destroy  all. 

In  the  Cascade  and  Ashland  Forest  reserves  of 
Oregon  but  25,000  out  of  3,000,000  acres  of  forest 
have  escaped  the  havoc  made  by  fires.  Some  of  the 
fires  belong  to  the  period  of  Indian  occupancy,  but 
by  far  the  greater  fires  and  in  greater  number  have 
occurred  since  the  white  man  came.  But  fires  are 
less  common  in  recent  years.  Little  game  is  left, 
hunting-parties  are  few,  there  is  much  private  owner 
ship  and  more  precaution,  and  the  humus  layer,  once 
destroyed,  no  longer  harbors  and  spreads  the  blaze. 
The  Indian's  reasons  for  firing  were :  that  grass 
might  grow  near  his  camps,  or  that  he  might  have 
clear  hunting-grounds.  The  white  man  fired  the 
woods  to  attract  game,  to  open  roadways,  to  promote 
the  growth  of  grass,  or  through  careless  leaving  of 
camp-fires.  In  one  case  where  a  fire  was  set  to 
allure  game,  a  half-dozen  deer  were  obtained  and 
fifteen  to  twenty  million  feet  of  timber  were  de 
stroyed,  the  fire  raging  until  put  out  by  the  fall 


282  GEOGRAPHIC   INFLUENCES 

rains.  One  fire  was  set  to  remove  a  windfall  log 
from  the  road,  and  three  thousand  acres  of  forest 
were  burned.  In  some  cases  the  soil,  almost  purely 
vegetable  in  constitution,  is  completely  burned  away, 
leaving  the  bare  rock.  Many  hundred  years  would 
be  required  to  renew  the  soil  and  replace  the  forest. 
In  the  Cascade  Reserve  the  fire  loss  during  the  past 
forty  years  amounted  to  seven  thousand  million  feet 
of  mill  timber. 

The  shake  maker  has  wasted  untold  amounts  of 
timber.  For  these  long  coarse  shingles  he  seeks  the 
straight,  well-splitting  trunks,  especially  of  the  sugar 
pine,  leaving  enormous  tops  to  rot,  or  to  feed  forest 
fires. 

Sheep  pasturing  is  more  ruinous  than  cattle  graz 
ing,  and  there  is  a  conspicuous  dearth  of  seedlings 
where  herds  and  flocks  have  filled  the  forest.  The 
sheep  herders  start  many  fires,  and  while  the  forest 
ranger  warns  the  trespasser  to  leave  the  ground,  he 
is  likely  to  get  the  answer  that  "  bullets  alone  will  be 
obeyed."  Shake  makers  chip  the  trunks  to  test  the 
grain.  The  resin  runs  out  and  down  the  tree,  and 
the  fires  follow  the  line  of  fuel  up  the  trunk  and  en 
large  the  scars  made  from  year  to  year. 

The  Sequoias  are  not  as  near  extinction  as  is  sup 
posed.  There  are  many  thousands  of  them  in  the 
reserves  of  California,  but  these  noble  patriarchs 
must  be  guarded  from  destroying  selfishness. 

There  is  but  one  course  for  the  national  govern 
ment,  and  this  has  been  entered  upon  with  vigor  and 
reward.  The  Cascade  and  Sierra  ranges  show  an 
almost  continuous  belt  of  reserves.  Others  are  found 


284  GEOGRAPHIC    INFLUENCES 

in  every  Cordilleran  state,  scores  of  thousands  of  acres, 
to  be  kept  for  the  common  weal,  to  be  policed,  and 
saved  —  their  perennial  springs,  their  straight  trunks, 
their  ample  shade,  their  rich  soil,  their  refreshing 
silences,  rescued  from  the  wickedness  of  the  few,  for 
the  good  of  all. 

The  national  government  has  a  like  problem  and 
a  similar  duty  in  the  East.  The  President,  the  Sec 
retary  of  Agriculture,  the  geologist,  and  other  men  of 
science  have  pressed  the  need  home  upon  Congress, 
and  within  a  few  days  of  this  time  adjournment  has 
been  had  without  action  upon  a  forest  reserve  in  the 
southern  Appalachians.  Here  are  the  finest  hard 
wood  forests  in  America.  Here  is  one  of  the  heaviest 
rainfalls  in  the  United  States,  with  enormous  capacity 
for  destructive  floods.  As  in  the  West,  so  in  the  East, 
the  spongy  soil  cover  once  lost  is  lost  forever,  so  far 
as  present  generations  are  concerned.  Centuries  do 
not  work  as  much  ruin  under  the  forest  cover  as  is 
done  in  a  single  storm  after  the  lands  have  been  made 
bare.  Every  southeastern  state  is  involved,  either 
bearing  the  forest  slopes  or  receiving  the  waters 
upon  its  lowlands.  Every  water  power  in  the  hilly 
south  is  put  to  risk,  and  every  acre  of  rich  soil  upon 
the  river  bottom.  To  save  the  forests  for  their  timber, 
their  beauty,  and  their  health-giving  shades,  to  save 
them  for  the  farms  and  factories,  and  to  save  them  at 
once,  is  the  duty  of  the  nation. 

More  than  $10,000,000  was  the  sum  of  flood  losses 
in  the  Appalachian  states  during  the  year  1901. 
With  the  abundant  rains,  wherever  a  slope  of  any 
steepness  is  cleared,  it  is  cropped  but  for  a  few  years, 


MOUNTAIN,   MINE,   AND    FOREST  285 

the  soil  is  washed  into  the  streams,  tillage  is  given  up, 
and  the  field  is  abandoned  to  ever  deepening  gullies. 
Meantime  the  rich  bottom  lands  below  are  either  exca 
vated  and  removed  bodily  by  the  torrents,  or  they  are 
deluged  with  five,  eight,  or  ten  feet  of  stony  waste,  and 
become  as  useless  as  a  gravelly  river  bed.  Ten  years 
of  delay  would  be  fatal.  The  single  states  cannot  do 
the  work.  North  Carolina  owns  much  of  the  forest, 
but  the  advantage  is  more  for  Tennessee.  One  state 
cannot  be  expected  to  legislate,  and  tax  itself  for  the 
benefit  of  its  neighbor.  As  with  irrigation,  so  here  is 
a  federal  question. 

These  are  the  fresh  problems  of  the  twentieth  cen 
tury.  We  must  control  the  mountains  streams,  to 
turn  wheels,  to  avert  floods,  to  make  the  soils  fruitful ; 
we  must  save  the  forests  for  themselves,  for  the  soils, 
and  for  the  fruitfulness  of  the  lowlands.  We  must 
find,  the  world  over,  the  grains  and  fruits  that  will 
grow  with  most  water  and  least,  in  the  hot  south  or 
cool  north;  we  must  adjust  ourselves  to  mountain, 
plateau,  and  plain,  to  river  and  sea ;  and  future  gen 
erations  better  than  ourselves  will  be  able  to  see 
how  geographic  influences  gave  permanent  molding 
to  the  national  life. 


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